Ranma One-Akane
by Ron Dow75
Summary: Add the "Freaky Friday" effect at the most critical time in a transformation, and you have a boy stuck as...
1. In a Lather

Ranma One-Akane  
  
By Ron Dow75  
  
  
2: In a Lather  
  
Kasumi in the same pink skirt and yellow blouse but fresh   
white frilly apron and matching hair bow from yesterday   
called from the bottom of the stairs, "Akane!! Akane, are   
you ready?!!" She hesitated about going upstairs and   
checking on her poor baby-sister. "It's time for   
breakfast!"   
  
Nabiki was already dressed in her slip, blue jumper with   
the bow in the back and short puffy sleeve white blouse   
school uniform. "She missed her usual morning jog. It makes   
me wonder just how effective this puppet-thing of Dr. Tofu   
is."  
  
Kasumi tried to reassure herself, "The doctor said sleep   
was the best thing for her at that point."  
  
Nabiki commented, "Just before he fell down the stairs."   
Why he did things like that was something nobody ever   
talked about with Kasumi.  
  
Kasumi asked, "Didn't you say he gave her something to make   
her sleep through the night?"  
  
Nabiki tried not to shudder. "Acupuncture." Everybody had a   
weak point; needles were hers.  
  
Kasumi smiled, "That's good. I hear sleeping pills can be   
addicting. I'm sure acupuncture isn't."  
  
Nabiki commented, "I should hope so."  
  
Kasumi turned to look back up the stairs. "I should go and   
check on her."  
  
Nabiki checked her watch, "Give her five more minutes. If   
she isn't down, she just isn't going to be keeping to her   
usual behavior patterns."  
  
Kasumi headed up the stairs anyway. She paused to ask,   
"What was that word, again?"  
  
Nabiki, thinking her big-sister wanted to believe in a   
magic word to go with the Tofu's magic spell, said, "'Wild   
Stallion'."  
  
Kasumi nodded, but said, "Shouldn't it be 'Wild Mare'?   
Akane is, after all, a female."  
  
Nabiki's business voice came out, "'Wild Stallion' has more   
punch, as they say in advertising, and that makes it more   
effective as a trigger." Then her tone changed, "Besides,   
she's not the type to be part of a herd; she creates herds.   
A stallion more suits her."  
  
Kasumi said, "All the more reason for it to be 'mare'.   
You're right, though, about her being not as feminine as   
she could be. Do you think we can get the doctor to do   
something about that, too?"  
  
Nabiki shook her head, "Tofu said for her to get her   
memories back, she has to be surrounded by familiar people,   
and places, doing familiar things. And doing them in the   
same way as she did them before."  
  
Kasumi sighed, "And that means acting like, forgive me,   
Akane, a tomboy."  
  
Nabiki checked her watch, again, "And it means going to   
school like she usually does. If she doesn't come down, and   
have her breakfast..."  
  
Kasumi beamed up at the top of the stairs at the ponytailed   
"Akane! You dressed yourself." Dr. Tofu said amnesia could   
reduce a person to the level of a two-year-old.  
  
"Not exactly." Feeling stupid and like a pervert, a   
frowning Ranma wondered how far they could see under the   
blue dress she had on from down there. {Don't think about   
it; don't sweat it; it's not my body. I'm not really a   
girl, so this ain't really my body they're looking at...}  
  
Nabiki said, "You made it under the wire, Akane."  
  
Ranma saw that the shorthaired teen was in the same dress   
outfit as she was in. {A school uniform. That means -Ugh!-   
school. And school is, is-out in public.}   
  
Nabiki continued, "I don't have all that much faith in this   
hoodoo treatment, but if it saves us from more expensive   
ones, I'm glad to see it doing its magic."  
  
Kasumi chided, "Nabiki!"  
  
Nabiki answered, "Look, I want Akane back to as normal as   
she gets, too. But I think that means we need to think of   
back-up options: In case this one doesn't work! That's the   
bottom line, here."  
  
Kasumi got misty-eyed, "Thank you, Nabiki."  
  
Before things got saccharin, Nabiki told Akane, "Come on,   
and eat breakfast, so I can walk you to school!"  
  
Ranma asked, "School!?!" She had hoped the body had dressed   
her this way because it didn't know she was too 'sick' to   
go. "Walk me?!" the chances of her escape lessened again.  
  
Nabiki told her, "Yes. I've been elected your baby-sitter   
until I can get you home."  
  
Everything moved when Ranma went down the Japanese-style   
narrow, steep stairs. But she didn't jiggle as much as she   
was afraid she would. It seemed to her as if the body knew   
how to minimize most of the unnecessary squirming of the   
only firm layer of fat (Gross!} she had under her skin.  
  
Kasumi put her hands together, "She moves almost normally."  
  
Nabiki said, "What were you expecting? She's not a zombie."  
  
Kasumi answered, "Or a clockwork doll," backing down the   
stairs to allow her baby-sister to come down.   
  
***  
  
The only action that she felt was her own, so far, was the   
tying up of the stupidly long hair in a ponytail in back   
and out of the way. {It probably looks like the older   
sister's. But at least there's no bow!}  
  
The frown locked on an unhandsome face, Ranma found herself   
sitting girl-style, not boy-style on the tatami floor. Her   
knees were together, and her heels were under her thighs.   
When it was time to get up, she was sure she would rise the   
same way she lowered herself, with the balls of her feet,   
her toes gripping. Very Japanese, she'd found in her   
travels.  
  
And it didn't let her forget that she had hips, thighs and   
a butt, in that order. {And a tiny waist to accent it all.}  
  
Her stomach growled. {Girls do that?} she thought naively.   
  
The girl's father was sitting across from her. He was famed   
by a view of the garden. {Don't they ever close that garden   
door! It's mocking me: "Escape is so close, so far..."}   
"Er, uh, so, Akane, how are you feeling, today?"  
  
Ranma said, moodily, "I don't want to talk about it." {I   
wish I could stop thinking as easy. I don't want to listen   
to the sound of her voice at all.}  
  
Nabiki sat at one end of the table, studying her more   
blatantly, "That's not like the Akane we know. She's let's   
everybody know how she feels."  
  
(Mr. Tendo muttered, "I really didn't mean that kind of   
feeling.)  
  
A kneeling, still smiling Kasumi set one of the bowls of   
misao soup in front of their father; "It would help you   
feel better. A girl has to express herself."  
  
Nabiki raised an eyebrow towards Kasumi but let it go. This   
was Akane's time.  
  
Ranma snorted, "By expressing herself, you mean girls just   
naturally have to talk." He couldn't miss that on his   
travels. {Look at that, even their dad is nodding.}  
  
Kasumi ladled soup into another bowl for Nabiki, who told   
her stubborn baby-sister, "Look, Akane, you have amnesia.   
Just sulking and not talking is not going to jar any   
memories loose."  
  
Ranma glanced at her, then down {A bust.} at the place the   
next bowl would go. Sulking, "You don't want to hear about   
what I remember."  
  
Judging by Akane's tone, Nabiki said, "I had a good reason   
to do whatever it is you remember I did to you."  
  
Kasumi reminded, "Nabiki, everybody has their own   
perspective. I think it's encouraging she has any memories   
of you, no matter inconsiderate you are in them." She   
ladled Akane's bowl.  
  
Nabiki said, "Oh? And what kind of memory fragments does   
she have of you? You're not ALWAYS happy and cheerful, you   
know."  
  
Rising Japanese-style, Kasumi brought the breakfast soup   
over to Akane; "I always try to be: Show your own family   
the friendly demeanor you show to the public. It's a way to   
show respect to others, something that all who value the   
traditional Japanese ways should do."  
  
The soup was placed in front of Akane. She glanced at it,   
then the Nabiki chick, "Does she always talk like that?"  
  
Nabiki said, "No. I think she's trying to give you advice   
on how you should behave today." And she gave a clearly   
fake smile, "Japanese are famous for smiling even when they   
don't want to. It comes from generations of samurai slicing  
off the heads of whoever displeased them."  
  
Peasant warrior Ranma well knew about that. But looking   
back at Kasumi, she had to ask, "Are you sure that's fake?"  
  
***  
  
They let Ranma use her lips for eating. Instead of doing   
his Thief-About-to-Run eating technique {Stupid Pop!   
Where'd he get the idea to name it that, anyway?}, she ate   
in a more civilized, and at a much more maddeningly slow,   
pace. If it weren't for the fact that the other sisters did   
a more lady-like job of it, Ranma would've called it eatin'   
dainty. {Even the dad does a better job at it. This girl   
must not be much of a girl. I guess I should be glad. What   
if I'da ended up in the example of the perfect Japanese   
hausfrau, Kasumi?} That sent a shudder through her. {And   
I'd all the time hafta smile about it!}  
  
She stole glances at the other one, Nabiki. {What if it'd   
been her? What kinda girl is she? She don't look like she   
smiles much. It sounds like she keeps testin' the  
boundaries of her situation. Does that include wearin' more   
sensible underwear than this girl!? -Man, this bra and   
panties are gettin' to me!}  
  
Ranma hadn't finished, when Kasumi started clearing the   
table, "It's time to go, you two."  
  
Ranma said, "Do I have to?" even as she rose female   
Japanese-style, and the skirt feeling more like a skirt.  
  
Mr. Tendo suggested, "Perhaps we should allow her time to-"  
  
Nabiki took her baby-sister by the shoulders and directed   
her towards the door to the inner hall, "Doctor's orders.   
As soon as Akane gets into her normal routine, the sooner   
her Akane act won't be an act, however wonderful that   
thought is."  
  
Ranma agreed, "That's a wonderful thought."  
  
The body, too, was reluctant to go to school, so Nabiki had   
to push her along.  
  
After putting on their blue uniform jackets, Nabiki made   
Akane carry their leather bookbags. Ranma asked the taller   
girl, "Am I suppose to do this everyday?"  
  
Nabiki toyed with the idea of saying yes. She sighed as she   
gave it up. "You're carrying it, so my hands are free to   
use on you, if you give me the first sign of trouble."  
  
{So that's what having a big sister is like. Welcome to the   
bottom of the peckin' order, Ranma.}   
  
At least she slid the door open for her.  
  
Then she shoved her out into the world.  
  
A cold day in March world! {How can girls stand wearin'   
dresses!!} Ranma screamed in shock inside, as she felt the   
stiff, damp breeze reaching up towards her panties.  
  
At the slightest lifting of the slip and skirt, the body   
brought both bags down to keep it in place.   
  
Nabiki had to slow down, "Well, come on. Take those bags   
away, and let's hustle! You know what happens when you're   
late to school."  
  
{Is it any worse than this wind?} Ranma fumed. If it was a   
man she was suppose to be worried about, at least then it   
would be somebody she could do something about. Using   
Ranma's martial arts skills, she might even get to get rid   
of some of this incredible frustration she was feeling. {If   
I had my freewill back, that is!}  
  
With the big sister keeping within striking distance, Ranma   
was marched through the tidy court to the high, but open   
fortress-like gates. She was so intent feeling chilly, and   
jiggly, and girly, and stupid, and trapped, and, and things   
her limited vocabulary had no words for that the terrain   
she was passing through really didn't register in Ranma's   
mind. That a martial artist didn't take constant   
surveillance of their surroundings was a measure of just   
how obsessed she was. What was most new and threatening   
wasn't OUT there.  
  
Nabiki commented, "I didn't realize the inner you was so   
modest."  
  
Ranma heard that, but didn't know what brought that on.   
Another breeze tried to blow her skirt up, but pressing the   
bags even harder on the sides of her right and left legs   
kept most of it down. {From the reactions I'm gettin' from   
it, I think this body doesn't likes wearin' dresses almost   
as much as I do.}  
  
Splash!  
  
A wet Ranma cried, "What!!?!" {Ain't I cold enough!!}  
  
The old lady in an orange kimono who'd done it to her kept   
on sprinkling her libation as if she wasn't aware of what   
she'd done.  
  
Nabiki said, "The infamous 'Ladle Lady'."  
  
Ranma yelled, "Who is she!?! If she can't see me, she can   
at least hear me, can't she!?!!" She was facing more the   
old woman than Nabiki.  
  
Nabiki again put her hands on her sister's shoulders again,   
and pushed her on, "Not when she's like this. She's 'in   
touched with the gods', 'on another plane'. I've heard   
she's done some strange things because 'they directed her   
to'. Most of them have to do with water."  
  
Ranma asked, "Water? Why water?"  
  
Nabiki said, "The Shinto water god is her personal patron   
god. Come on, let's get a towel from Dr. Tofu."  
  
Ranma tried to catch a stray thought. {Isn't there   
something about Suijin and women...}  
  
***  
  
Ranma's pace, for some reason, became more brisk as they   
approached the doctor's clinic. She didn't have to be   
shoved along, or inside. {She would, if this was my idea. I   
hate doctors!} "I thought you said we were going to be   
late?"  
  
Nabiki said, "We are. But as long as we are, we might as   
well be late enough to avoid the Big Scene."  
  
Ranma asked, "'Big Scene'?"  
  
A man's strong and kindly voice said, "Akane! Nabiki! This   
is a pleasant surprise." He wore a black martial arts' gi.  
  
Ranma said, {I want to yell!!}, "You're, you're the one who   
pulled the sneak attack on me yesterday." {He didn't even   
give me a chance to use whatever martial skills I have   
left! -Why couldn't this body give me decent show of   
righteous indignation!!?!}   
  
The brown-brunette said, "I merely applied a Vulcan nerve   
pinch."  
  
Nabiki was not amused, "Doctor, please! No jokes. Akane's   
in no condition to appreciate them."  
  
Dr. Tofu leaned forward, moving his Western-style glasses   
as he studied Akane; "How is our patient, today? I trust   
the turtle-over-snake technique I applied has her at least   
acting like her old self."  
  
Ranma felt her heat rising, "You're, you're the one   
responsible for this... this... -Too! I have to be act like   
a girl because of you!!" Her heart started beating faster.   
  
Dr. Tofu said, "Curious reaction."  
  
Nabiki just rolled her eyes up. "She's more of a tomboy   
than we thought."  
  
The good doctor said, "I don't know about that. Akane's   
body appears to be flushed. Her pupils are dilated. And her   
breathing rate has increased."  
  
Ranma could hear the blood pumping in her ears.  
  
Nabiki defended her sister's (and thereby her family's, and   
thereby her own) reputation, "Surely you're not one of   
those who believes just because we all know she acts like a   
boy she doesn't like boys."  
  
The educated man said, "Of course not."  
  
Her feverish skin becoming moist, Ranma struggled to tell   
them-HIM!- "Well... I... don't. I, don't, like, boys." The   
signals in her crotch were arguing something else. {What a   
time to find I have a piece of my manhood left! Stupid:   
You're barking up the wrong tree, here!!}  
  
Nabiki said, sarcastically, "That's obvious." If it were  
anybody but the trusted, and observant, family doctor,   
Nabiki would've been more embarrassed for them both. To   
Tofu, she said, "We came in here to dry her off. May we   
borrow a towel and leave before she starts to, 'drool'?"  
  
Tofu said, "Uh, yes. We can't let her appear at school, uh,   
wet."   
  
Under her uniform's jacket, {Stupid, irritatin', too big,   
copycat nipples!} Ranma discovered yet something else  
boobs did to bug her.  
  
As the handsome man turned to fetch one, Nabiki asked, "You   
wouldn't have a secret technique to.... Never mind! I guess   
it's really something a guy wouldn't be interested in   
knowing."  
  
***  
  
Bookbags in hand, Ranma was still a little unsteady in her   
white ankle socks and deck shoes as they hurried off to   
school. The skirt flagging behind her, the bra only   
limiting the range of the bounces, she had something worse   
on her mind, "It feels like I'm wearing a diaper."   
  
Nearly beside her, Nabiki said, "Of course they do! We need   
something to keep you from embarrassing everybody! For a   
moment there, I thought you might flow like any girl in a   
hentai manga."  
  
Ranma told her, "I'm not a pervert!" {I just feel like one!   
The wrong kind, too: Gettin' bothered over a guy! If it'd   
let me, I'd puke.}  
  
Nabiki said, "Let's hope not! Your conscious is not really   
in control of the brakes right now. Just make sure you see   
me in the third floor girls room after your first period   
(an unfortunate homonym)."  
  
Ranma challenged her, "Why!!?!" She had been starting to   
feel her own-self coming out. {And I don't mean the stupid,   
weak-kneed girl's! A real girl wouldn't be this pissed!!}  
  
Nabiki told her why, "To make sure you get a new pad! We   
don't want your scent attracting the animals. You already   
have enough boys after you when you DON'T give them any   
encouragement!"  
  
Ranma told her, "Just let any boy get near me, and I'll   
give them encouragement!!" And as a demonstration of her   
meaning, she raised one of the bags, her small hand a fist   
around its handle.   
  
Nabiki almost smiled. "That's the attitude! It would've   
been too strange to think underneath it all you were really   
boy-crazy."  
  
Despite and because of all of the novel sensations, Ranma   
burned off some of her fury by speeding up, "I'm not! I   
hate boys!" She started developing a double-handed martial   
arts bookbag technique: "Hate boys! Hate boys! I really,   
really hate BOYS!!" {Damn unmanly nipples!!}  
  
***  
  
After a winding jog with four intersections, they came to   
an extra long block. At its end were the walls of a large   
compound. The wide entrance with its out-of-sight gate up   
ahead suggested that it was meant to be a public place.   
Looking over the wall, Ranma saw the clock tower so common   
to Japanese schools. It read '8:35'.   
  
Matching her, now, Nabiki said, "At least we're not as late   
as we could've been. At least we should be able to get you   
to class without the Big Scene."  
  
{There, she said it again.} "WHAT Big Scene?"  
  
They had just turned into the gate, when: "Fairest, most   
worthy Akane..."  
  
Nabiki slowed to a halt, groaning, "Unless, that is, we run   
into Kuno-Baby."  
  
She glared at 'Shooting Star', the president of the   
Furinkan High kendo club as he held his wooden bokken sword   
out towards them. "...the only girl to truly challenge this   
samurai's heart, I have composed an ode to thee. 'There   
once was a girl from Nerima, who liked to'-"   
  
Nabiki yelled, "Kuno!! Stop it right now: Stop ALL of it!!   
Because of you, Akane's not herself!! You got a strike on   
her, and now, and now-" Nabiki became choked up. 'No!   
Mustn't let anybody see me like this! I don't let things   
get to me! I'm the Ice Queen!'  
  
She turned to Akane behind her, "Well, just don't stand   
there-Cream the creep!!"  
  
{I think that's what this body wants to do,} Ranma growled   
in disgust. After dropping the bookbags, the girl's body   
had become frozen, unable to take its eyes off of the   
stupid jerk wearing a kendo-uniform at school during school   
hours. {Okay: So girls might find him tall and handsome   
with a good physique-but he was nothing to soak the bandage   
that doctor gave me to put in the panties, is he!!?!}  
  
Nabiki cried, "Akane!? What's your problem?!! Where's your   
programmed response!?! Kuno's the bell, and you're Pavlov's   
dog: Sic 'em!!"  
  
Kuno lowered his bokken. "Then it is true. At long last I   
have won my prize. I do not know whether I should be   
exultant in my hard fought victory, so earnestly..."  
  
Nabiki yelled, "Akane!! Don't tell me-Tell EVERYBODY-you   
really do have feelings for the jerk!?!"   
  
{DOES this stupid Akane-girl have feelings for this first   
(samurai, upper-) class creep!?!} Ranma just didn't know!   
She did not know how to interpret the sensations the body   
was giving her. They were certainly different from the one   
it felt when she was at the clinic. {I've never been good   
at knowin' with my own feelings, let ALONE a girl's!!}  
  
The six-foot-tall boy hadn't broken from his speech, "...or   
lament the loss of a will that was as a whetstone to the   
sword of my..."  
  
Nabiki cried, "Akane!! Don't let him finish his speech!!"  
  
Suddenly the rumbling that had been building reached the   
level on the Richter scale that it could no long be   
ignored. It might have been thought an earthquake if it   
weren't accompanied by a growing din of voices.  
  
Teenage boys' voices!  
  
The main doors of the broke open at their hinges as a surge   
of high-schoolers in sports uniforms, boxing-shorts, sumo   
loin clothes, fencing protectors, leotards, or martial   
arts-gi/uniforms came rushing out! And they all gave voice   
to one name: "Akane!"  
  
"Akane! Don't waste yourself on him!"  
  
"I love you, Akane!"  
  
"If you're open, let ME be your match!"  
  
"Meet me, Akane!"  
  
"Akane, sugar, honey, stick with me!"  
  
"Try your indiscriminate grappling with me!"  
  
"Let me serenade you with my El Kabong!"  
  
"You're too much of a woman for one man!"  
  
"You're our idol, Akane!!"  
  
"We love you!!"  
  
"...Nay! The fruits of love triumphant should not just be   
savored, but enjoyed! I come to you, Ak-" Kuno's speech was   
cut short when he was trampled by the horde.  
  
And still Akane was like a deer caught in the headlights-Of   
a bullet train!! Nabiki shouted with all her might:   
"WILD STALLION!!"  
  
"RANMA!!" Ranma answered, leaping into the middle of the   
assault of boys. {I'm outa the spell!!} She punched,   
deflected, dragon-clawed, and ducked. {Yes!! I'm back to   
actin' like myself!} She chopped, evaded, jabbed, and   
rolled away from a lucky hit. {I'm doin' what I'm best at:   
Martial arts!!} She elbowed, kneed, and even back-kicked!   
{This is who I am!!} "RANMA means THE WILD STALLION!!"  
  
The End 


	2. Color Her Red, Too

Ranma One-Akane

     By Ron Dow75

     3: Color Her Red, Too

Ranma discovered the hard way girls get sore after violent activity. {Especially the less-than-good-for-nothing boobs! All that extra soft stuff bein' yanked around!} Though she was loath to admit it, she would probably be feeling worse if she wasn't wearing a bra {Still, this ain't nothing like the kind of hurt I've had to put up with before I became a girl. So, why put up with a thing that's most uncomfortable when it's doing its job!?} 

But she'd done it. Despite a quack doctor giving her something that gave the stupid body she was stuck in the say so on how she had to act, she'd broken free of that Akane's habits, and become Ranma, again! She'd single-handed taken on and defeated a platoon of attackers. Okay, they were high school jock-types, but still: When it came to a fight, there wasn't anybody that age better than her!

Her?? {Damned this body!! It just won't let me forget!}

"Akane? Akane?!" the girl's sister waved a hand in front of her face.

Her triumph interrupted, Ranma snapped her head around hard enough to move her long ponytail. She definitely told her, "My name is, Ranma."   

Nabiki took hold of the back of her shoulders, and pushed, forcing her to step over the bodies of the fallen boys, "Your name is Akane Tendou. "Ranma/Wild Stallion" is just what we call you when you forget that. You have amnesia, dear sister." Nabiki hoped she hadn't gone too far. If a person knew what their post-hypnotic trigger was, it could weaken its effectiveness. But then again, Dr. Tofu's moxibustion/herb-burning treatment of arcane shiatsu points was supposed to be stronger than mere hypnotism. 

Now that Ranma thought she had control of her martial arts' reflexes, she fought to regain control of the vocal cords and speech pattern {WHY do I think in this Akane's voice??}, "I want, to be called, Ran-ma."

Unable to walk and talk for herself at the same time, Ranma stumbled over the Kuno-creep. Nabiki's grip kept her from falling, then kept her going. "You'll be called Akane, because that's who we want you to be again! I know "Red Cloud" doesn't have the marquee value of "Wild Stallion"; but despite this liter of guys, you're not ready for a fighter's epithet. Look at Kuno-Baby," she said, glancing back at the trampled boy. "These same idiots are afraid of him—but do YOU really think he's a "Shooting Star"!?"

The sempai samurai, age 17, mumbled with his waking thoughts, "Red Cloud…Blue Thunder…"

= = =

The head {I don't WANT it to be cute: Not cute! Not cute!}, hands and feet {Boy, are they big for a girl. ' Must be why they're kinda clumsy.) still took up the lion's share of her body-awareness. But after that… As a girl, Ranma's center of gravity was now down in her belly; her lower body was where most of what mass she had as a girl was. And that had very un-guy-like, wide pushed-out hips that required her legs bend towards each other {Or is this Akane-girl just naturally knock-kneed?}. And all that was dead weight as she resisted being pushed into the school. 

But this taller Nabiki-sister was stronger than she looked; "Either you're more of the passive-type than you'd have people believing, Akane (Which I refuse to believe), or the reason you've been letting me push you around this morning is because you've been indoctrinated that you have to go to school. No matter how reluctant you are to face the problems you have in it." 

The body became tenser, blocking any further attempt of Ranma to claim her true identity.

Nabiki had to shove to get her through the main doors. "Come on! You can't hide behind the Amnesia Excuse all of your life!" 

= = =

They were late, so the hallway was nearly deserted.

Nabiki helped Akane up the stairs by lifting an arm she had twisted around her back. Ranma felt angry and… She didn't have a word for it! It wasn't a feeling she was used to. All she knew is that it made her feel even more boxed in. Not only couldn't Ranma freely express herself, apparently the body felt IT couldn't, either.

The sister decided she could at least talk friendly, " "Red Cloud" isn't that bad of a name. Look at me; do you think I'M a "waving, fluttering cloud"? Do *I "BEND or YIELD to a power"? More like the other way around!

"Kasumi, now, IS a "hazy, mist-like cloud"!"

The Akane-habits knew the names of her family, of course, but nothing so far had prompted it to say them. Ranma thought this might be a good way for her to remember their names, "And what about, errr, 'our-father'?" Japanese would have to have two words for father, "my/our", and "somebody-else's".

Ranma could feel the sister relax a bit now that it seemed she didn't have to worry about an Akane/Red-in-the-Face eruption, "Daddy is Soun, "Fast Cloud". Lets just leave it at that."

Ranma said, "There's a family theme here in the names, right?"

Nabiki said, "And other families don't have themes?"

Ranma, the Wild Stallion, thought of Genma, the Dark, Unpolished Stallion, {Okay, point taken.} 

= = =

When they got to the third floor, Nabiki pointed to the signs above the classroom doors. "1-F. Walk!"

Feeling the weight of her long hair as her head bent, Akane's body shuffled to the door in a blue dress with just ankle socks on her shaved legs. Nabiki called after her, "No excuses! You're not to get any special treatment! I give administration Dr. Tofu's note if you screw up!" {Like I said, quack.} It was only when she was about to turn the knob that the body raised her head, and pulled back her shoulders. {And pushed out as it squashed the boobs,} Ranma groused.

She went in. And smiled.

= = =

Ranma was standing out beside the classroom door, in front of the windows and small lockers, with a full bucket of water. She wasn't smiling.

Okay, she could understand why she was being punished. She was late.

But she looked up and down the hall. "So why am I the only one out here?" {Not only were those guys I beat up late, too: They cut out of their classes to get beat up!}

Ranma looked down past the bust she was keeping her upper arms away from {I don't want to hafta feel them any more 'n I have too; they remind me I'm not a guy right now! …But then, what doesn't.} The blue dress's jumper bib covered even more of what was below. Without moving them away from her lower abdomen, she couldn't see her hands holding the handle of the pail leaning against her thighs {' Like a weak girl.}, but she could see some of the water. She didn't like the reflection. 

She looked away, her frown deepened. {You can't be late, but it's okay to get in fights, around here.} Suddenly she had a thought that made her so angry, she had to raise her fist: "What!!?! Is the real reason I'm being punished is for beating up guys!?!!"

The weight of the water pail won out against her bruised left shoulder. And centiliters were sloshed out as she was bent awkwardly to the side. {Stupid girls' narrow waist!}

= = =

In classroom 2-E, Tatewaki Kuno had changed into the normal boys' uniform of Furinkan High, gray slacks, belt and white shirt (short-sleeved even on this day). "Her spirit remains. What didst my eyes behold when I recovered from the unsportsmanlike-like attack upon my personage, but a field of mown pretenders to the throne that is her heart. It is true; it was but I alone who could still her red-hot fury. It is I alone who have rightful claim to her—"

Sitting next to him, Nabiki Tendou stopped the flat of her hand before it hit the desktop, "Kuno!" She also had to keep her volume down, "I TOLD you the only reason she didn't lay into you immediately this morning is because of that lucky strike you got in on her yesterday(!) As soon as she recovers her—"

"RrrM—No!! I will not let her recover!! What is the point of victory, otherwise!!?"

Bopd! The onsen souvenir paperweight that the teacher threw bounced off the top of the student's thick head, "Kuno! Go stand in the hall!"

Nabiki was relieved; if the kendo-jerk had kept his Akane-obsession going, she would've ended up out of the classroom, as well!

= = =

The smile was frozen on Ranma's face even after her teacher had closed the window that looked into the hall from the classroom. {Great! This Akane-girl was one-a those people that feel they gotta smile even when they don't wanna. I'd rather be angry!! At least I'd know it was my own feelings, not a girl's!} Girls just didn't get as riled up as guys did.

"I bet you thought you were cute, smiling like that all of the time," she muttered to herself. Ranma was determined to build up a head of steam and break out of the mental straightjacket she was in, "Girls are required to smile and not get angry because they're the weaker sex. They have to defer to the guys because they're soft. Girls just take what's given them. So, if a girl defeats a bunch of prize athletes?…. That's right: Athletes are the fake warriors of this Westernized world. An insult to everything I've worked MY whole life to become!"

"Akane Tendou!!" Speaking of 'prize athlete' and fake warrior, it was that upperclass-creep again, coming down the hall. Still in his black and blue kendo-gi, he held out his wooden bokken sword, this time, just to showoff {GRRR!!}. The handle of his pail of water rested on the bokken's shaft. The feat of {greater than female} strength was spoiled only in that he gripped his sword in the traditional samurai-way using both hands. 

"Akane Tendou?!?" He asked when he was within charging distance of her. He stopped, and raised his bokken (and letting the pail's handle slide down the hiltless sword to be stopped by his own hand). He gave himself a smug smile, "Then it is true, you no longer respond to the name."

{Yes!! The anger worked!} Ranma triumphed. {Either I'm more me than her, now, or—} Ranma's mood crashed. That sickness was back that pumped blood into her sensitive tissues, moistened her hands and— {Will I EVER get my manhood back!!?!}

The guy's handsome face shown brighter, his voice sounded clearer, his aroma more—{Now, I KNOW this Akane-girl was one sick chick!!} When he spoke, she listened, "Then it is time you change your name to Kuno."

She heard him, alright; she just wasn't understanding him. "Change my name to "9-Abilities"? I haven't given up on being "The Wild Stallion", yet!"

As Kuno lifted the bucket with one hand, he said, "I am your Wild Stallion. And as for the 9 abilities of a wife—"

The trance was shattered, "WIFE!?! I haven't planned on being ANYbody's wife—Let alone yours, Kuno!!" The words came faster than Ranma could think of them, as if they came with the body's program. {Kuno?! The body called him that!?!! Man, is HIS name burned into her!}

Acting(?) dense, the samurai-teen said, "Trouble yourself not. You have not to make any plans. The Kuno clan wilst make all of the marriage arrangements. The contract can be—"

Ranma caught up with Akane, as both yelled, "I WON'T be anybody's WIFE!!" She lashed out, hit the pail, and sent it and the water in it crashing and splashing.

Kuno blinked, "I have never heard of a girl PREFERRING to be a concubine."

Their battle scream was cut short by the opening of classroom windows: The boys crowded their upper bodies through one: "Don't do it, Akane!"   "If you want to be somebody's secondary—"   "Choose me, instead, Akane!"   "My dad engaged me to this girl, but if you don't mind being a—"   "Give me another year to learn kendo!"   "If you would rather be the husband, Akane—"

And the girls through the other: "Don't do it, Akane!"   "If you cohabit with a guy—"   "I wish Kuno the Rich would choose me!"   "My dad engaged me to this boy, but you've inspired me to—"   "Give me another year to learn archery!"   "If you would rather be the husband, Akane—" 

"Akane Tendou!!" This shout was her teacher's.

"Hai!" was her automatic response.

Keno cried, "She said, YES!!" and rushed to wrap his arms around—Ranma ducked just in time!

Ranma ran down the hall, "Okay, let's get this over with once and for all, Kuno!!" she told the monumental jerk-creep. "Outside, and away from distractions!!"

The students of Class 1-F broke out of their windows and into the hall. "After them!!"   "Yeah, this just isn't just about them!"   "The whole boy/girl balance of the school is at stake!!"

Kuno declared, "I follow, My Love!! You eagerness to consummate our relationship is only matched by—"

Ranma cried, "Cut that out, Kuno!! The only thing I'm interested in—" {Man!! Don't even say it! Can't you feel what the word's doing to this stupid Akane's body!!?}

Kuno rejoiced, "The Lady Akane can't even bring herself to protest too much!!"

Ranma turned a hall corner, "Keep saying things like that, Kuno, and I won't wait until we're outside!"

Kuno answered, "Please! We have reached the point where you can now call me Tatewaki!!"

Ranma stumbled as she nearly lost the use of a bare knee. "Why do I want to you to be "bringing me a sword"!!?!" {There's a double meanin' I can do without!!}

The chemistry lab she was passing exploded!

The concussion and debris stopped the crowd: "EEEEEE!"

Ranma was thrown through the already shattered windows to the outside!

The homeroom survivors of the Chemistry and Ordnance Club looked out the gaping hole in their wall. "Was that Akane who went out the hole in THAT wall?"

His front-half showing signs of the blast, Kuno dove through the missing windows, "I come to save you from your lonely life, My Love!!"

A second survivor said, "It must've been; that's Kuno jumping after her."

= = =

Kuno realized, "AAAA!! So High! –That was the third floor!!!"

Falling through the damp, windy air, goosepimply, singed, scratched and her school uniform a mess, Ranma had a bigger problem: {Damned, stupid, idiotic skirt!! Stay down!! Stay down!!} It wasn't her modesty she was worried about: {I gotta see to land right!!}

(Wait!?!! Does this body KNOW how to land right!!?!}

Getting the skirt out of the way enough, Ranma was able to see, "A swimming pool with water in it! It'll be freezing, but at least it'll break—Come on! Come on!!" {Didn't that stupid Akane-girl learn how to dive!?!!}

Because of that health hazard called a skirt, Ranma had no time to teach—

SPLATCH!!

Kuno landed moments later. His panic had robbed him of any lessons in diving he may've learned.

SPLATSH!! 

Face down and limp, Kuno floated to the top of the cold, cold water.

While Ranma: {I can swim! I can swim!! I've done it since I was a little kid!!!} Something else to stress out about!! {C'mon, body!! If there ever was a time to let me take over, this is it!!! It's both of us stayin' down, for GOOD, if I'm not allowed to –Don't open your mouth!!! *Ngahh*You wanna drown *Gulp* that much quick— *Glug!*—)

= = =

Ranma felt a solid male form envelop her as it brought her waterlogged body to the surface. Ranma did not appreciate what was happening at all. {I'd almost rather this become the Pool of Drowned Girl….}

That indignation became all the grater when she opened her eyes and saw Kuno.

He swam her past another guy in a kendo-gi in the pool with them.

Steadying himself against the side, with his other hand he lifted her up out of the pool and onto the edge. Kuno then joined her.

She felt him roll her over. {This is it. This is how I'm gonna get my first kiss…and it's gonna be from a guy…} And she couldn't find the breath to do ANYthing to stop it. (Not just any guy, either, it was a guy who—}

Water spouted out of her mouth as Kuno pressed the heels of his hands against her solar plexus! He wasn't kissing her!?! He wasn't even giving her mouth-to-mouth respiration!??!

Surprisingly capable, his special technique drew air in to replace the cup of water expelled with each massage. Finally, after the long minutes since splash down, she heard Kuno speak, "When a mind is overwhelmed with stress, the body takes over. Do not become overwhelmed."

…*Cough*… {There, there's something wrong…with that voice.}

"Itoko no kata!! She is MY prize!" (Now THAT sounds like the Kuno that gets under my skin.}

The NEW Kuno commanded, "Silence! This is not the time for that!"

When Ranma could focus, she saw Kuno kneeling beside her.

…And Kuno standing over her.

There were TWO of them!!?!

TWINS!!?!!

No: The other one was wider, taller, browner, more weathered and chiseled…in his late twenties, early thirties, Ranma guessed.

But there was no mistaking the family resemblance. 

But when THIS Kuno spoke, "Are you all right, Miss? Nod, if you are. Fine! I apologize for not giving you mouth-to-mouth respiration. But it is frowned upon when a man in my position does it."

Ranma felt herself being lifted in his steel hard arms. Again she resented being the damsel. "*Cough* Who, *Cough!* who are you?"

He started carrying her back towards the school, "I am the acting headmaster."

= = =

Meanwhile, Dr. Tofu Ono was between patients. Going down his secret stairs, he analyzed to himself, "I hope I did the right thing by prescribing that less than standard treatment for Akane. Could my Diagnostic be wrong? Then again, it told me that I had to be at the Tendous at just that moment. Poor Akane would've runaway to who knows where, if I hadn't been there."

The End

For those who have problems with which of the interpretations for their names I've chosen, I'm writing in English, and am looking to have a little fun.

No, I did not make up the Chemistry (and Ordnance) Club. See the video, "RANMA ½; TV Series Vol. 4": EPISODE EIGHT. It is the one where Ryouga returns for the 2nd time, and the club attempts (miserably) to blow up him and Ranma up. It is also the one where Akane loses her long hair.

Ranma wasn't given the standard First Aid treatment because I was looking for storyteller's moments.

As for the acting headmaster, I will use him to explain many of the things that happened at Furinkan High before the real Headmaster showed up. Plus, of course, he will take an interest in Ranma One-Akane; one like no other Alternative-World Ranma character's.

Because of a criticism of the Doctor's prescription, I have decided to reveal something about Dr. Tofu earlier than I had planned. It is something that I always thought best explained a lot about him…and Kasumi.


	3. Surfaces

Ranma One-Akane

     By Ron Dow75

     4: Surfaces

Ranma's small, soft, singed, scratched, and soaking wet Akane-body was taken to Furinkan High's main building. She was cradled in the very strong arms of a man in a kendo-gi who looked like he could be that Kuno-creep's much older brother. 

All gave way before the samurai who claimed to be their acting headmaster. Even dripping wet, he was imposing. And that was from just a fraction of the battle aura Ranma sensed. All of the rest was directed inward.

The clothes Ranma were in, too, were singed, tattered and soaking wet. The man's lower left arm could feel through the back of the blouse she had on; his right hand supported the bare thighs the school dress revealed. {Is that what this 'acting headmaster' is holdin' back!?! Is he a secret pervert that's afraid he'll lose it, otherwise?!}

He WAS overly stoic; all of the time from the pool, he'd kept his eyes straight ahead, not looking down at her body once.

They reached the infirmary just as she got her wind back: "Please let me go," she said far more politely than she wanted. {Damn! How come a BODY has things to say when the owner is outa it!!? Does that have anything to do with why I THINK in _HER voice?!} 

A girl with her dark brown hair tied up in a short ponytail by a red ribbon gave a surprised reaction, "Akane??!" 

Ignoring the girl in his arms, the man in charge told the girl below him, "Go to the office, and get a spare uniform." He turned to Ranma only to ask, "What size?"

Apparently that information was readily at hand for the Akane-girl. Ranma had to say, "I, I don't know."

The other girl said, "I know! I'll get it, sir!" exiting.

The big man of brawn continued on. Ranma asked, "Where are you, taking me?"

His answer was, "To bed."

Her answer was, "I don't want you to take me to bed!" And she reared back her hand to slap him. {Martial arts SLAPPING!!?!} Ranma protested.

The force of her blow spun her as she was thrown through the air.

She landed, clumsily and awkwardly, on the bed. {Ow-ch, ch! Not only do these no-good boobs wanna get in the way—So does a stickin'-out hip!!}

But Ranma quickly pushed herself up on one hip, ready to defend-and-attack.

What she saw was the back of the expressionless adult Kuno as he placed an infirmary screen between them with one hand. He departed without looking back, without saying another word.

= = = 

Dr. Tofu Ono flipped the switch that lit his cellar. Beyond the immediate area were the Plexiglas-door bookcases that contained his eclectic library. Along with ancient Chinese tombs, modern Western-style textbooks, paperback treatises, pamphlets and brochures to such attractions as "The Three Brothers" and "Juusenkyo", he had a special selection of mangas. He liked the original ideas they gave him for his treatments. But there were a few shoujos.

In the immediate area, to his left, was an empty bookstand. To his right were a couple of chairs, a reading table and lamp near the wall. Across the way, its doors closed, a shrine was on a table by the further wall. Next to that, in the corner was a desk-sized, double-hatch (one with a heavy padlock) chest with pure white cloth covering something about 60 centimeters high. And beside that was a map of the local area tacked to a single wooden ornamental screen. The good doctor paused to ponder before it. "I wonder how it got moved?" Carefully, he repositioned it a couple of centimeters until it was between him and the correct degree of NNW direction. "There!" he smiled.

On the map different colored-painted Chinese ideograms and symbols marked various, seemingly random locations. Dr. Tofu liked to think of them as "geo-chi shiatsu points". Only one of them had a red-and-black yin-and-yang sign. And that one was NNW of the clinic.

= = =

A girl moved the metal-frame-and-cloth-curtain of the screen to look in on, "Akane! You actually met him?!" 

Ranma saw she had the smallest eyes and lightest brown hair she remembered seeing in a fellow Japanese; "Who is he? He claims to be the acting headmaster."

The girl came into the little privacy area and immediately sat down on the bed with her, "That's who he is! He's ALSO the biggest mystery of Furinkan!" {Gee, she's sittin' close, even for a Japanese. Do all girls get next to each other like this?}

Ranma said, "The mystery is how a guy like that became even an acting headmaster." {Her bein' up next to me like this is pushin' my buttons to back off, assert myself…or grab her!}

The girl whose left hip and thigh {to say nothing of the boob) were nearly touching Ranma's right told her, "Yeah, he belongs in a samurai epic."

{…But it doesn't bother the Akane-body. Girls must get this close to each other normally after all! Focus on,} "A samurai epic?" 

She said, "Yeah! Those scenes where the warrior is off deep in the woods, undergoing tests of discipline?"

Though Ranma had seen very little TV or theater because of his travels and his skinflint pop, even she knew about the most famous of those scenes; "Are there any waterfalls around here?"

She shook her large head of hair, "No. But that's why he keeps water in the swimming pool, unheated—Even in the winter!"

Ranma said, "You mean, he's the reason there was water in the pool when it's too cold to swim in?!"

She nodded, "He doesn't swim in it, I don't think. He just likes to be in it up to his chin."

Ranma said, "Oh!…That's why he was there when –In his clothes??!"

= = =

To the right of the wooden screen with the map on it, nearest the stairs, was the bookstand. On it, Dr. Tofu had placed a Chinese medical reference. Placing his hands on the chart of the human acupuncture points, he let his left hand hover over the map. "Yes, the disturbance remains at the Tendou property. Akane must still not show signs of recovery. I'd hoped it was only temporary amnesia. No harm would come if her mind had been prompted to reconnect with her familiar ways on waking up. Hmm…but it seems the cause of her problem was not one of sickness. 

"But there was something that was causing my Diagnostic to sound the alarm yesterday. Sickness is normally what it means; making sure those who lived or worked at the geo-chi points are treated keep the disruptive effects of the sites sealed back. Sickness demons are usually the first to emerge.

"But the Diagnostic was what suggested the treatment I used on poor Akane. I would NOT have done anything to make a person with a possible head injury unconscious, otherwise."

The doctor he slammed the book closed, annoyed with himself, "If only the thought of seeing Kasumi hadn't clouded my mind, I could've been alert to what was really happening."

He picked up the book from the stand, and stood looking at his bookcases, "I'm going to need assistance in finding the correct text I'll need."

Tucking the weighty book under an arm, he had enough time to bow his neck as he slapped his palms together, "I need you, Beti."

= = =

The thin, oddly plain girl talking to Ranma asked, "I know you say you don't like gossip, Akane, but hasn't Nabiki told you any of these things about Mr. Touno?"

Ranma asked, "Who?"

She said, "Who's Nabiki; your sister?"

Ranma asked, "No: Who's Mr. Touno?"

She said, "He's the acting headmaster, Sadamu Touno-sama."

Ranma asked, "It's not Kuno?"

The girl laughed, "Can you imagine a "Headmaster Kuno"? Let's keep things straight, he's Headmaster Touno."

Ranma said, "But he looks so much like Kuno!"

The girl nodded, "The word is that they're related. A cousin, I think."

Ranma looked away to what, half-drowned at the time, she remembered, "So that's why Kuno called him itoko no kata." She returned her look to the girl, "Okay, now, for you. What is your name?"

Ranma received a very strange look back, "I'm Tsugako. Nabiki's first vice president and secretary?"

Ranma returned the look, {What the hell does that mean??}

From the other side of the screen came, "I'm back with the spare school uniform and emergency unmentionables, Akane!"

Tsugako said, "And that's Sayuri; your best friend?"

= = =

While Beti did the research among the bookcases, Dr. Tofu'd gone to the chest to uncover the special mass of marbled red clay on a silver platter. Resting beside it was a case with ancient bronze acupuncture needles.

Before beginning, Tofu sighed, "If only the answers from one reading did not settle out so soon after."

Starting with the skills he learned as a chiropractor, the doctor started running his strong fingers over and beneath the surface of the clay. He felt for the spots that called to be pushed, pulled or massaged; when he felt an energy imbalance, he would stick one of the needles in it. That is when the clay would spasm and seem to come alive…

= = =

The soggy uniform dress fell to the floor around her bare feet. 

The idea of getting out of girls' clothes was a welcome one to Ranma. {Too bad I can't do the same for the body! Life would be different for me, then.} But she knew it was only to put on a dress that was just like the one she despised, only one not wet and messed up. {Girls' gotta be all 'neat, and clean, and pre-tty'; can't have them look like they really do anything.} Okay, Ranma knew she was being unfair; she'd seen more than enough hard-working women in his travels. But she, the Stallion, had a great big mental block on about all things positive about females. Until her 100% male-self got as used to being a girl as he was capable of getting, she would not be ready to deal with her blindspot. {I can't even think about bein' the one needin' rescuing right now," she glowered to herself.

{' Course, it's not like I haven't had to be helped before. I remember stayin' at this Buddhist monastery after I hurt myself once. They talked about the "Folds of Adjustment". Something about two days, two weeks, two months, two—} She had gotten down to the wet peach-colored bra and (somewhere below it) wet, lacey, taffeta panties.

{Even that long and I won't be likin' any of this!!}

"Akane?!" Sayuri asked. She was holding out a towel for her.

Ranma accepted it. {I don't want to be a girl long enough to HAVE to learn if I can!!}

Ranma started drying herself off. She saved the underwear for last; besides being the wettest, they were also had in them the parts that were the most…

Tsugako asked, "Aren't you going to change into fresh lingerie, Akane?"

Ranma said, "Oh, right!" trying to remember exactly what that word meant even as the body had reached around and was getting slack in the middle of the peach-colored bra by pulling on the elastic band… {What a bother! What is with girls puttin' on new things the first chance they get!? As a guy, I never had a problem with leavin 'damp underwear on and lettin' them dry naturally

Tsugako commented, "What were you thinking this morning, Akane? Your top and bottom don't match in the least."

While the bra was being dropped on the chair with the other wet things, Ranma said, "It's not like anybody is supposed to see them."

Sayuri said, "Where is your mind today, Akane? Of course they're going to be seen."

That's when a crowd of voices entered the infirmary.

= = =

Dr. Tofu made one last pass of his hands over the work of clay-with-bronze-needles that could now, at best, be called abstract. He read its lumpy surface as a phrenologist reads the head. One last push, and he was satisfied that the true character of the present situation was ready to be read.

But it wasn't from the swellings in the misshapen mass he would read. The black-green lines within the red clay (with specks of yellow) seemed to form very idiosyncratic sousho/cursive ideograms. 

"Hmm…"Three have become five…" Okay, five doesn't have quite the primal power that three does; but all prime numbers are stable. I don't see the disturbance. It is Yin and Yang that are in constant change. They are two with two more hidden within them, making four. The threat from the Tendou property is centered on even numbers. Three sisters form a natural prime set. If that is the three referred to, Mr. Tendou would still be able to compensate for the odds, by subtracting and adding his presence.

"If he was aware of the imbalance. Hmm…"

Surprisingly little of the clay had clung to the doctor's hands; this he massaged into them as he pondered. "My Diagnostic is sensitive to the fluctuations of energies in the area. It wouldn't have rung like a figurative bell like it had if it hadn't been struck by an impending disturbance." The clay disappeared as it was absorbed into his skin. "I was attuned to its peal, and not distracted by anything yesterday. I looked at the time. It happened at 8:25 AM. And since I found out later it had to do with Akane…Whatever precipitated the disturbance happened then, at her school."

Tofu had a thought, "That could mean that whatever the crisis is has effected the school as well!"

= = =

{It's okay…This body isn't overreactin' as much as I wanna. It must be sorta okay for a buncha girls to see another *Swallow* another girl naked; nude. Right: This is Japan. 

{Maybe it makes some sense to let a body that knows how to be a girl to take the lead for a while. If it was left up to me alone I'd probably end up screwin' up royal, and becoming an even bigger damned fool than I feel like right now.} Then she made a resolution, {As long as I'm stuck bein' a full-time girl, not a half-time, or part-time girl, I, I, --I can't even think it!! I'm not ready, yet!!}

"Akane! Akane Tendou!! Is that your answer!??!" asked one of the representatives from every classroom in the school; there were so many, most were out in the hall. And they all wore the same blue jumper and white, puffy-sleeve blouse uniforms. Ranma wasn't.

"My answer?" {While I was thinkin' to myself, they must've asked something that that Akane-girl hadn't rehearsed in her head before or something. It isn't in the body's programmin'.}

A girl shorter than Ranma was now, with the big brown eyes that left little white showing stepped forward. She wasn't kawai/cute, exactly. But she definitely wasn't Ranma's idea of what a leader of a mob should look like (but there was still an alarm bell going off in Ranma's mind that she was too sensory overloaded to deal with). "Since asking you politely is not sufficient," ("With offerings!" another good said, holding up a small gift wrapped parcel with both hands.) "We will ask you in blunt language. We demand that you choose a guy!"

("But not Chika!"   "Or Hisa!"   "Inugoya is mine!")

Ranma finally found her voice, "Why would I want to do a dumb thing like that?"

A tall girl with long but stiff hair, with a more or less unfeminine manner about her {Now, that's my idea of a girl who could lead a riot.} said, "Because all of the guys worth dating have become obsessed with you, Akane! All they can talk about is you!"

Ranma said, "That's dumb of them."

The tall girl said, "We're talking about boys." Of course they're dumb.

Off to the side, a permed girl Akane's size but with what seemed like a much better figure said, " ' Especially considering what they seem to prefer." There was an insult in there, punctuated by the survey she gave her.

That did not bother Ranma's feeling, but it did bring her mind back to how naked she was; she told them, "I don't want to choose any boys! I HATE boys!"

The brown-eyed girl said, "We've heard that all before. But for the good of the group, the girls of Furinkan High, you WILL date a boy."

The tall girl said, "Yeah! And be so hopelessly gone on him, all the other boys will stop thinking of you and think of us, for a change!"

Ranma told them more forcefully, "The thought of acting like a silly girl is too…ridiculous…to even talk about!" She was stopped from saying a word that would've certainly have had the girls feeling more insulted than they already felt.

The race-queen type said, "Then you leave us with no choice."

There were nods and other shows of agreement from the gathered girls.

Ranma stopped feeling naked and became merely nude as she adopted the usual battle stance; her spirit struggled to become one with the body. "What are you going to do!?! I warn you, I'm a martial artist!" {Wow! I actually got to say that!}

The tall girl smirked, "That won't matter. Nothing you do can stop it."

The beauty gave Ranma her most vixen smile, "The word is about to go around that, "despite your violent protests", you have become the fiancée in an arranged marriage."

The girl still holding the gift with both hands murmured, "We're sorry, Akane."

That news so stunned Ranma her arms lowered themselves. "Fiancee?! Marriage!?" There was only one automatic association the Akane-body had with those two words. "I don't want to have anything to do with KUNO!!" she yelled. {Why DOES her mouth say one thing, and her crotch say another!?!!}

= = =

Tofu went over to the bookstand and the "Guide to Accursed Grounds, Third Edition" Beti had placed on it. There were places that had a greater concentration of geo-chi points than Nerima, some even had well over a hundred within an a hectare/couple of acres or so of land. Juusenkyo was one that came to the doctor's mind for some reason. "I wonder if my Diagnostic picked up a disturbance in one of those. It would still have to relate back here, or I would not have heard the resonance." It was just a hunch, but if anybody could sense things above this physical plane, it was Beti. It was just too bad about her problem, or she could have been much more of a help to the doctor. But, then, that was what led to her death, and how he, eventually, came to have her skeleton. It was a very tragic story.

Tofu smiled, Beti had even brought a photograph of Akane Tendou. Picking it up, he said, "Well, since I thought of it, I'll start with Juusenkyo." Then he mused, "If you begin at the ends, what you're looking for is usually found in the middle, anyway."

No sooner had he placed his hand on the section, than the photograph changed. He only got a glance at it before the face returned to that of Akane, but it was enough to give him the answer he was after. "That's why the Diagnostic recommended the turtle-over-snake treatment! It all makes perfect sense, now! 

"The idea is NOT to make the boy Akane; the idea, the heart of the problem is to make sure that that they are kept SEPARATE! There must be TWO STRONG identities in that one body! If there was just the boy's, then there'd be one less identity, that still housed in Akane's body's. One minus five is FOUR! "Three" would "have become four". FOUR is the number of Yin and Yang! It is vital there be an odd, preferably prime number at the Tendous!

"I'm going to have to make Mr. Tendou aware of the new—" 

Dr. Tofu Ono had a realization that made him pick up the "Guide" with both hands and stare at its picture of bamboo poles over each of the geo-chi points. "Does that mean Akane's soul is now one of the "Three" of the "Five" identities!?!"

Suddenly the temple bell-like gong that someone who has not absorbed some of the clay could not hear from the Diagnostic became loud enough to catch his attention.

Dr. Tofu snapped his head around, "B, but, there ought to be balance now! The crisis should at least have been dampened!"

He rushed back to the chest, "Beti!! We're going to have to operate on the Diagnostic! While there is still time, we are going to get to the deeper mysteries behind Akane and this boy! And may Destiny and the gods be kind."

Notes Below:

Ranma would have treated Akane's body and identity the same way as he would've treated the Juusenkyo accursed female identity. Which was what he was about to do; there was nothing to keep Ranma from trying to go back immediately to China. It is important that until the real Akane returns to the Tendou home her presence be felt in Nerima. After that? 

If Ranma hadn't been given the turtle-over-snake treatment, Akane's-body identity would have been reduced to zero(*)?  Okay, then what about the Accursed (Female) form of Juusenkyo? The simple answer is the independence is provided by the curse magic; it IS the accursed form. Part of assertion of that independence is the "water magnet" effect.

(*) Not quite true, but correct for the definitions the Diagnostic was conveying on its surface:

"Three" and "Five" are the simple way of counting the identities. Subtract Akane's and Ranma's bodies and you do not really come back to Three. The true number might be closer to "Twenty-two over seven": A truly magic number.

They'll be more on that after I've explored Akane's side of the equation in an "Akane Two-Ranma" chapter or two. Remember, if Ranma's body doesn't have a strong identity, too, the equation doesn't come out to five, either. Alert: An ancient character of mine (i.e., from my pre-computer days) is going to make an appearance that will put these stories on a path different from accepted fanfic lore.

One final note: I like the stories that are forming in my head with this "fiancee" story angle. It has great potential. But I'm not happy with how the girls turned on Akane. (Hint.) It has to do with the deeper mysteries of her and Ranma.


	4. A 2-R 01: To Be a Warrior at Last?

Akane Two-Ranma  
  
By Ron Dow75  
  
01: To Be a Warrior at Last?  
  
[This takes place before, on the more familiar   
timeline, Akane Tendou even knows Ranma and Genma   
Saotome even exists.]  
  
Nude and wet, Akane had just gotten out of the   
furo/sunken bathtub in her family's Japanese-style   
bathroom. Even after the soak, she was still cursing   
herself for having let Kuno get a strike on her with   
his wooden bokken sword. The boys at school were her   
only real challenge as a martial artist. If   
Upperclassman Kuno had won, not only would her honor   
be at risk, but her reputation as a girl! He already   
had a warped view of the world. What would he say   
happened if he did a date from her!? Even people   
THINKING she might kiss him--  
  
"Ohrr!" She growled, and kicked the bar of soap that   
had strayed away from the shower area beside the   
furo. The force of her exasperation sent it bouncing   
off the blue tile walls.  
  
Kasumi called out: "Akane! Will you clean the tub   
after you're done?! Dr. Tofu says his herbal   
ointment leaves a ring!"  
  
Annoyed, now, at having to be distracted from her   
annoyance, Akane answered, "Okay!" turning to do the   
chore. Her foot landed on the soap that had slid   
back to her.  
  
The girl with her hair tied up found herself falling   
towards the tub: She screamed!!  
  
Meanwhile, in Juusenkyo, a panda leaped from the pole it   
had landed on, and attacked a ponytail teen in a   
gi/martial artist's uniform while he was distracted   
talking to their Chinese Guide. The brunette boy was   
struck, and falling towards one of the springs: He   
screamed!!  
  
Splash!  
  
In the suddenly cold water, Akane felt something   
unbelievable being linked to something even more   
unbelievable!! It was almost a relief when the   
second replaced the first.   
  
But then her fear of drowning, her fear of water   
began to set in: The girl with hair tied in a short   
ponytail found the bottom, and rose in a pond that   
was above the waist deep. Something told her it   
should've been below the waist  
  
There was something different about her body. First   
of all she was tenser--and getting tenser--than she'd   
felt even before, every smaller muscle tightening.   
Second she was no longer nude; on her was the   
familiar feeling of a kempo-gi coat and pants   
(though she'd never worn one this wet). And third,   
and perhaps most attention grabbing were the greater   
curves she felt from larger top to lighter bottom!  
  
Confused, Akane opened up the front of the soiled,   
white gi, and looked at her now size D boobs.  
  
"AAAAAA!!" her now different voice screamed.  
  
Somebody had been talking: "...Now whoever fall spring   
take body of young girl (ha, ha)."  
  
Her shocked mind finally told her it was a man   
talking: Akane quickly pulled the wide-open top   
closed. Tight! {Aw-ch, moved too fast.}  
  
Her new face scowling, her blush caught up with her.   
She wanted to turn away, retreat until she could get   
her bearings. {It's always an advantage to know as   
many of the 5 Answers as you can before you fight.}   
But she had no answers. {I don't know this man--I   
don't even know how I GOT here!!} Her fists up   
against the larger bust she felt {Or LIKE this!!},   
she had to stare up at him, read his moves, and   
prepare herself as much as she could for an attack.   
That increased her already immense tension. It also   
screamed that this wasn't her body! {Even the voice   
I think with isn't mine!!}  
  
The wide man in brown Mao clothes and yellow-star   
cap said in accented Japanese, "Oo, do not look at   
me like that, Miss--I mean sir!" And he pointed to   
the Chinese ideographs on the long, ringed placard   
book he was holding, "I not do this. Is "Spring of   
Drowned Girl"! Nan-niichuan! I repeat: There very   
tragic legend of girl who drown in spring, one   
thousand five hundred year ago. Now whoever fall in   
spring take body of young girl."   
  
Akane raised her higher voice, "That DOESN'T explain   
how I--"  
  
Just as she was beginning to deal with two (three??)   
uncertainties at once, a huge black-and-white furry   
creature landed on ground near the Chinese man. It   
tried to stay erect on its hind legs {WHY is it   
wearing a white gi coat and, and...Eastern-  
style/loops-instead-of-earpieces glasses around one   
ear??}, but fell over onto its fore ones, too.   
  
It lost the fight, and fell onto its jowls, with   
only its rump up.   
  
Akane cried, "EE! What IS that?!"  
  
The Chinese-looking man said, "I repeat that, too?   
That, sir, is your father. He fall..."  
  
Akane started wading towards the pool's edge,   
"Dad!!?! He's here, too!?!" {If this weirdness can   
happen to me, why couldn't it happen to somebody   
else in our house?!}  
  
The Chinese man flipped over to another placard in   
the ringed book, "...into Xiong-mao-nicuan, "Spring of   
Drowned Panda"! Very tragic story of panda who drown   
two thousand year ago. The legend say whoever fall   
in spring take body of panda!"  
  
Akane had enough! Freeing her fists from their hold   
on the kempo-gi's lapels to get a grip on her   
sanity, she yelled, "That's ridiculous!! People do   
not turn into other things!"  
  
The Chinese man blinked. "But you are girl now(?) I   
see you peep!"  
  
She took a swipe at the idiot, "Of course I'm a   
girl!" {Can't you see these caricatures of   
breasts!?} She reached out and took hold of one of   
the FOUR {WHY would I think that number was   
important--I'm in a situation, here!} bamboo poles in   
the water to steady herself.   
  
The Chinese man said, "Oo, I not hear Nan-niichuan   
change personality, too, like Fuushan-niichuan,   
"Spring of Drowned Priest"." Just speaking of it,   
had him flip over to that placard. "I need read   
again "Guide to Accursed Grounds, Annotated   
Edition"."  
  
The panda was nodding as if it understood what the   
man was saying as it walked up beside him.  
  
Akane's foot slid on the muck on the bottom of the   
pond. She grabbed a pole in time. Feeling the   
heavier swing of those boobs, she looked down; she   
saw her reflection for the first time. "Who is   
this!!?!" Those too blue eyes, that too red hair,   
that too cute face, that too, too built, petit body:   
{THESE aren't mine!!!}   
  
The Chinese man smiled, "That is tragic reaction I   
expect." He flipped to, "You fall in "Spring of   
Drowned Young Girl", Nan-niichuan. There very tragic   
legend..."  
  
Akane had to quickly back away from slashing claws,   
"Dad! What do you think you're DOING!!?!" He foot   
slipped! If she hadn't been grasping the pole, she   
would've gone under--Maybe drowned!!  
  
"DAD!!" she screamed, looking for the chance to pull   
him in {' Easier thought of than done, when I ache   
like this}. If he wouldn't help her out {He KNOWS   
how much I hate ponds and pools and the like!},   
she'd climb on him and help herself out!  
  
Got it! "Now, to flip--"  
  
The Chinese man cried, "Eww, no, sirs! Very bad you   
fall into TWO accursed ponds when in accursed-form!"  
  
This time the panda listened to him. As it brought   
its foreleg back, the newly made redhead came with   
it as she determinedly clung on. Her gi pants were   
water logged and dripping.  
  
The Chinese man flipped through his book of   
placards, "Most tragic example...Oo, I do not have one   
for "Yeti-Riding-Bull-Holding Crane-with-Eel". Name   
must be too long. Chinese name is too long, also, to   
tell to people who do not know language, anyway."  
  
Lowering the book, he told them, "You fall into Nan-  
niichuan you become young girl...panda!"  
  
The creature dropped, and ran as fast, and   
awkwardly, as its four legs could carry it.  
  
Having let go, Akane yelled, "DAD!!!" as she now   
struggled to keep from rolling {Ow, larger boobs at   
least make better stop-wedges.} into yet another   
pond. Cramp! Cramp! {Come on! You've dealt with   
cramps before!...} Just not all over her body.  
  
= = =   
The Chinese man, hesitantly, approached, "I help.   
You not make splash?"  
  
Akane had more than one reason to yell, "Go near   
that water!!?! Of course not!!"  
  
He reached down and pulled her by her exposed feet   
and ankles away from the pond's edge. He repeated to   
himself that this wasn't really a beautiful young   
girl; this had been a teenage boy just a few minutes   
ago, named Ranma. As 'sir' was dragged further from   
the water, the incredible, competing tensions eased   
enough for him to notice. To help him take his mind   
off of her softening body, he returned to his   
favorite topic, "Juusenkyo is one of many accursed   
grounds around world. They first become training   
ground when warrior come, meet challenge of   
different body. After he master old, he master new.   
Then he is true master warrior."  
  
On the damp earth and grass, Akane thought, {Am, am   
I here to be a warrior?} She didn't understand how   
she came to be chosen {I haven't mastered my OWN   
body, yet}; but she DID understand the concept. A   
warrior--especially a martial artist needed to be in   
harmony with their body, thought and action wed as   
one. Right now she had TWO different sets of   
reflexes and habits fighting each other. One was   
that which came with her new body. Without them, she   
would be like a fish out of water, since her the new   
body responded differently than her old one. The   
other was that which she used to control her OWN   
body. All that was left of her old body was what her   
mind held onto. It was like a ghost to her. The   
faster she could learn to adapt her mind to a body   
she wasn't used to, the more ready her mind would be   
able to adapt to other problems: Like injuries,   
fatigue, temperature, hydration...even, perhaps,   
magic!  
  
Akane struggled to prove her merit by pushing   
herself up off the ground on shaky arms. The more   
weight they had to support, the more they trembled.  
  
The Chinese man offered his hand, "In days of lore,   
warrior fight warrior in great contest of cunning.   
They try keep each other from hot water. You have   
twelve hour find hot water, or have accursed-  
body...forever."  
  
Akane heard that: "Half-a-day, or, or...." She looked   
off in the direction the panda she thought was her   
dad had run.  
  
The Chinese man nodded, "Panda. It not change back."  
  
At the thought of the danger her father was in,   
Akane forgot about herself. Before she knew it, she   
was up on her new feet.   
  
The Chinese man said, "Sir! You are fast learner!   
Come, we get hot water at guest cabin."  
  
Akane shook her head, as she began to limp away on   
smaller legs and feet {and narrower waist}; "I have   
to find Dad while I still can! And this body is   
going to slow me down too much as it is."   
  
The man tried to explain, "But, sir! When you get   
your own body back, you track faster."  
  
He was right of course. But that would be the easy   
way. That was not the way of this place. "I was   
brought here, to become somebody truly worthy of the   
name, warrior. That is what I've wanted all of my   
life." Then a catch developed in her new throat.   
"It's what I HAVE to be. It's my sacred filial duty.   
My obligation...my debt of honor." She then sounded   
like she was fighting back deeper emotions that had   
been released. "I was born to be a martial artist,   
and that is how I must die."   
  
The Chinese man said, "Oo, sir is serious. I not   
argue with someone who think like that. I go get hot   
water ready."  
  
Akane nodded as she heard him leave. He called her   
"sir", and that was how she felt. When a MAN   
honestly called a woman that {As opposed to a girl   
friend} it was a sign that she was recognized for   
something that was outside her gender. {' Not that   
women couldn't do most of the things guys could.}   
Then her cute face got Akane's more familiar frown,   
{...If guys would let them. Women's Liberation is   
something that's never really taken hold in the   
East.}  
  
Trying to close her stiff fingers into a fist ended   
up only having them look like claws. "Sometimes, I   
wish I were a guy. I certainly wouldn't have to   
fight off girls like I have to guys." {Can you   
honestly imagine a group of girls fighting over a   
guy!?!} Then she had a second thought, {Well, may be   
a singer-idol. But NOT a guy whose only thing he's   
has going for him is he's rich and handsome. Just   
look at Kuno.} Just the thought of his name, and her   
old reactions wanted to imprint themselves on her   
new, smaller, tighter, hotter, wetter...  
  
The twitching caused a taut leg to twitch, and skip   
again, sending her foot towards the brink of one of   
those springs. She bent down to physically restrain   
it--only to get a backache! She made the back arch,   
and she waddled on. {Kuno and his SAMURAI, grand-  
standing stunt!!} she cursed! {It's because of HIM I   
started having feels like this!} Her mood had   
darkened even more, "I honestly think the reason   
I've been challenged to all those fights this   
semester is because the boys can't take ME   
seriously. No matter how many times I win, they   
refuse to accept they could lose to a...mere," the   
word 'mere' had a acrid taste, "girl."  
  
{...And THIS "cute little thing" of a body is even   
more of a girl! *I can't even take it seriously.   
  
{But that must be the whole point why I was given   
this ego-diminishing form!} she told herself as a   
way to fend off the attack on her pride from BOTH   
sides, the part of her that wanted to be a respected   
martial contestant, and the part that wanted to be a   
desired marital prize. {If I can overcome this   
handicap, then I can overcome just about anything!}   
And when she got back to Nerima, she'd show   
everybody that her own Akane-body was more than a   
match as a girl for this Cupy Doll's, too...  
  
= = =  
In HIS rush to keep from falling in a spring that   
would make him female as well, the panda had   
actually stumbled along a path that took it by three   
other springs. "Honestly! If Dad had just kept his   
head, he could have avoided nearly all of them. We   
were on the edge of the springs area, after all."   
  
Relieved that she had passed the last of them, Akane   
took one last wary look at that one. What if some   
animal or insect fell into it, and suddenly rose up   
out of it to attack her? Her mind found a very   
strange thought to ease her fear, {If you can become   
a combination of things with the water of more than   
one of them, then you could become something half-  
human and half-animal.  
  
{But where ARE they? I haven't heard of   
anthropomorphic creatures running loose.} She shook   
her head to rid herself of the wild thought. {I wish   
I'd never listened to the Anime Club going on about   
American cartoons.}   
  
She headed off towards woods at the base of the   
mountains ahead, trying not to think of a Disney   
dimension, a Warner Brothers dimension, a Hanna-  
Barbera dimension, a...  
  
{If Pluto is a dog, then what is Goofy?...}  
  
= = =  
Akane veered to the left. "There seems to be a spot   
up there with a lot of bamboo. That is what pandas   
eat, isn't it?" She shuddered at the thought of her   
dad having to live off of that. "It took Kasumi's   
best efforts to get him to eat what he did eat! If I   
remember right, bamboo can barely give a panda   
enough nutrition."  
  
"Bwaoo!"  
  
Akane looked to her right in time to see the black-  
and-white creature lumbering towards her upright. "--  
At least this one looks well-fed.  
  
"Dad!! Stop playing around, you've got to--" The   
panda wasn't slowing down!  
  
Feeling like a deer caught in the headlights, Akane--  
broke free and acted!   
  
She tipped herself over onto the ground at her side,   
and let the clumsier beast run past her.  
  
The panda had to fall down onto its front paws to   
stop a few feet beyond her. It then turned, and   
charged at her again.  
  
Akane was still on her slimmer back on the ground   
looking at more than 150 kilograms of beast coming   
for her. "Dad, is, is this your way of trying to   
help me?" Suddenly, she remembered again why she   
thought they were here. She wanted to make him proud   
of her. "Yes: I will become a warrior among   
warriors!"  
  
The monster leaped. "I won't let you down!" She   
brought her new shorter legs up at almost the right   
spot under the thick coat of fur. Grunting with all   
of the body's might, she used its own enormous   
weight against it. "You--Or Mom!!" Feeling like she   
had added the strength of another women to the two   
she already had, she tossed her father's figure   
meters away.  
  
His panda form landed on skidded its side, almost   
rolling over onto its other side.  
  
Panting from the effort, and feeling sore but good,   
Akane stared at her challenger, calculating its   
battle plan. {Dad should continue attacking me until   
one of us can no longer move. He owes it to me for   
neglecting my training!}  
  
She channeled her own will through the reflexes of   
the body she was in. It was still like a child   
learning to do something new with her body, but at   
least she was no longer constantly fighting with it.   
She stood up, as erect as her aching muscles would   
allow. "Come on, Dad. We have twelve hours to make   
up for ten years."  
  
There was surprising little anger in her.   
  
= = =  
In a blood-red sunset, a red-ponytailed girl,   
bruised, scratched, and exhausted rode belly down on   
the back of her panda. Her dirty kempo-gi was in   
shreds. "We...still...have...a few...more...hours,"   
she wearily said into its fur.  
  
"Beh-rah," it said, not sounding pleased.  
  
Finally the Chinese guide's soft voice could be   
heard, "Sirs! Sirs, over here!" The wide man in   
brown was standing outside a one-room cabin built in   
the Chinese manner. There was a campfire pit off to   
the side of the dirt path to its one, now open,   
door. A bright fire and large plume of smoke acted   
as signals.   
  
The only man in sight said, "I have teakettle   
ready!" holding it up as a greeting.  
  
= = =  
As soon as the panda had reached the front of the   
cabin, it rose onto its hind feet, letting the girl-  
form tumble off of its hairy back into the grass   
with dirt patches.   
  
"Owch-ch!" she groaned. "You're just mad because it   
was a draw...." She was too fatigued to do anything   
but lay where she'd fallen. She mumbled, "I fought a   
wild animal to a stand-still...," as she closed her   
eyes again.  
  
"Bwah vra rraa," was its only comment as it took the   
teakettle from the guide.   
  
The guide demonstrated, "Pour over head, shoulders,   
chest: Above heart. Hot water make you man again."  
  
It asked, "Br-hot-d?" But deciding to be brave about   
it, it let a trickle come out of the kettle's spout   
onto its furry head.   
  
The extra mass melted off of him. Underneath was a   
stout, muscular, hairless, and nude man. But at   
least he had his glasses on. He adjusted the straps   
around his ears as he looked down on the person   
cursed to be a girl. "You disappoint your father,   
boy! You've allowed a girl's body to make you forget   
everything I've taught you!"  
  
And with that, he took the lid off of the teakettle,   
and tossed the contents at the soft body lying at   
his feet. "You're not ready to be called a man."  
  
"AAAA!! That's HOT!!" cried a tenor voice.  
  
  
Notes Below:  
  
In the movie "Freaky Friday", the mind transfer   
happened just as the mom took a drag on her   
cigarette (HOT), and the daughter took a mouthful of   
ice cream (COLD).   
  
I think having to deal with the ghost of your old   
body (just as an amputee has to) is what would most   
likely happen if you could change bodies. And,   
unlike other body-changing stories, it fit in with   
the plot of this story.  
  
I chose to interpret Pantyhose Tarou's curse having   
started with a man who fell into four springs and   
then had drowned his accursed form(s) in another   
because: (a) It's the simplest explanation. (b) It   
allows for more story options! Especially when (c)   
matched up against what happens when somebody has   
their uncursed form cursed again. That is for the   
next chapter. 


	5. A 2-R 02: ...But at What Cost?

Akane Two-Ranma  
By Ron Dow75  
  
02: ...But at What Cost?  
  
Weary after fighting for hours with a panda more than   
three and a half times the weight she had as the petit   
redhead, Akane had just needed a little rest before--  
  
"AAAA!! That's HOT!!" cried a new tenor voice. It was   
a boy's voice!!  
  
He rose up, not feeling the familiar drop, swing and   
dangle of breasts!! They had been flattened down to   
the pectorals!! And those muscles bulged! All the   
muscles above the lean thighs had swollen and   
lengthened to encase the smaller redhead ones that   
Akane had just started to adjust to. The abdomen was   
solid; the waist was straight. And the hips were slim,   
or seemed so under the broad back and shoulders. The   
butt was tight, and, and...something was touching the   
ground where nothing should.  
  
In shock, Akane Tendou did not look at the men   
standing over him, and barely comprehended what the   
stocky, muscular, hairless and nude man was saying:   
  
Genma Saotome tossed the teakettle aside. Looking down   
on the teen now in his son's body, "I expected better   
of you, Ranma! Ten years of training ...ten years of   
pulling you away from girls ...ten years of knocking   
thoughts of girls out of your head ...ten years of   
instilling that girls are your opposite ...ten years   
of applying the "id-scrub--" (No, you're not supposed   
to know about that one)..."  
  
Akane cried, "It's growing!" and pushed against the   
lap of his shredded white kempo-gi/uniform.  
  
Until he realized what he was pressing down: "How do   
you make it stop!!?!"  
  
That's when Akane looked up--and truly saw the totally   
naked man next to him. "AAAAA!!! Get away from me!!"   
he screamed, trying to use suddenly taut but shaking   
muscles.   
  
But his male organ had no problem responding: It   
stiffened longer!  
  
Genma stared, his mouth open in a pronouncement not   
delivered.  
  
The Chinese guide shook his head sadly, "Very tragic.   
Boy really girl. You know before you bring him to   
Juusenkyo?"  
  
Genma roared, "NO!! This is caused by that "Spring of   
Drowned Girl"!!"  
  
Bringing it out from seemingly nowhere, the Chinese   
guide produced his long, ringed placard book, "Nan-  
niichuan! There very tragic story of girl who drown in   
spring, one thousand five hundred year ago. Since that   
time, whoever fall in spring ONLY take body of young   
girl." Then speaking more to himself, "I need write   
editor of "Accursed Grounds of World". He need publish   
revised edition."  
  
In his attempt to escape the naked man and the clothed   
man, Akane was able to roll as he thrust his tense   
slim thighs out to sprint away. Cramp! Seized!  
  
He fell. And he fell awkwardly on top of his totally   
unfamiliar equipment: "Yow-ch! These things hurt!"  
  
Still dazed, Genma's reflex response was his old   
speech about, "Be a man, Ranma! Work through the   
pain!"  
  
Meanwhile, Akane's response was to push his knees   
under himself as he attempted to become fetal, "How   
can guys stand to have this, this--demon!"  
  
That broke through to Genma. He wept. "Ranma, my Son!   
What has happened to you?" He clenched his fist, and   
closed his eyes. "It, it couldn't be from the   
treatment I've been giving you all these years!? My   
pure fatherly desire to make a real man out of   
you...didn't result in the spontaneous reversal of   
your manhood because of the shock of becoming a girl?"   
  
The Chinese guide said, "Eww, sir! That some side   
effect."  
  
The hurt diminished enough for coordination-challenged   
Akane to make her escape again. But the nearly hard   
enemy jabbed into his gi-pants the wrong way--and   
wouldn't bend right! He roared, "How can guys fight   
with THIS getting in the way!!?!"  
  
Genma matched the roar, "Ranma, My Son!! Say your   
stunted id didn't find its outlet in a girl's!!"  
  
The Chinese man looking on commented, "Oo, maybe   
father get conscience,"  
  
When Akane made another, more cautious, attempt to   
gain his feet, the naked man grabbed him before he   
could get two steps.  
  
Genma pulled him around and picked him up by his gi's   
lapels and hoisted him into the air, "Say it, Ranma!   
You're NOT interested in men!!"  
  
Akane cried, "I'm not interested in YOU!!" and kicked   
the man where he as a boy'd been hurting.   
  
The naked man nearly dropped Akane as he dropped to   
the ground. {Oh, yuck!! I touched it with this bare   
foot!!}  
  
Akane's large feet on the ground, now, it was HIS turn   
to look down, "And my name's NOT Ranma!! If you WERE   
my dad you'd know it's Akane!"  
  
The bald and naked man clutched her fighting gi rather   
than his balls. "I AM you father!! Do not deny THAT as   
well as your manhood, boy!!"  
  
Akane fought to loosen naked man's grip on the coat,   
"I will deny it, because I'm a girl!! I don't WANT to   
be a boy--I HATE boys!!!" {That's it: The demon-down-  
there is losing its strength!!}  
  
Desperate, Genma yanked the body of his son down to   
face him, "Remember your heritage, Ranma!! You're a   
Saotome!!"  
  
It was Akane's turn to be confused, "Make up your   
mind!!" Applying his increased strength at the   
pressure points of the crazy father's wrists, he said,   
"Now you say I'm a rice planting girl!!" {Is that what   
that drowned red-haired girl was?? What HAS that to do   
with being a guy!!?!}  
  
His hold on the boy slipping, Genma told him, "That is   
what you ARE: Ranma Saotome"/rice-planting-girl"!!"  
  
Akane frowned, wondering about what he heard, "I'm a   
wild stallion with a rice planting...." He did not   
finish the description.  
  
Instead he bellowed, "PERVERT!!!" as he hit the man   
over the head with a wooden mallet.  
  
The naked man went down, unconscious.   
  
But he hadn't fallen stomach down.  
  
= = =  
The Chinese man said, "Oo, sir--"  
  
Akane told the other man, "Call me MISS!" renewing his   
grip on the mallet's handle. The only muscle wasn't   
hard was the one he most wanted soft.  
  
The Chinese man said, "Oo, miss, you learn one of   
Juusenkyo secret!"  
  
Akane eyed him suspiciously, "Secret?" {There's no   
doubt this place is full of magic.} But then her anger   
focused on what was REALLY important: "The only SECRET   
I'm interested in is how to get my OWN body back! I   
thought once I was finished with your warrior's test,   
I could become me, Akane Tendou again!! Does this look   
like the body of a Japanese GIRL!?!!"  
  
The Chinese man said, "You have body of Japanese boy,   
just like before you fall into," and he held up the   
placard book, "Spring of"--"  
  
Akane swung the mallet, and hit the annoying book out   
of his hands! "BEFORE I found myself in that, that   
accursed spring(!) I was home in my bathroom--In   
Japan!!"  
  
The Chinese man informed her, "You in China, now...,"   
and he produced ANOTHER of those long, ringed books   
with Chinese characters on the placards, "...in   
Quanjing Region of Balakala Range of Qinghai Province."  
  
Finished with his blinking, Akane yelled in   
frustration, "How many of those do you have!!?!"  
  
The man said, "As many as I need. I get same place you   
get hammer."  
  
= = =  
The grown bald man with his clothes on bowed, saying,   
"Miss...Tendo? My name is Chorus."  
  
At first Akane just stood there in his male body. Then   
he bowed, appreciating at least the acknowledgment   
that he was really, "Akane Tendou...of the Mushashi   
Provence of the Nerima Prefecture, Japan." Then to be   
polite, "Mr. Chorus." But as he straightened the body   
up, he asked, "Mr. Chorus? That's a...unusual name,   
isn't it?"  
  
Mr. Chorus answered as he turned to go into the cabin,   
"There many unusual name in this part of China, Miss   
Tendou.."  
  
Waddling after the clothed man into the cabin, the   
very stiff Akane demanded, "Well!?! Are you going to   
turn me back to my own self!?!!"  
  
He went to one of the two hiking packs and bedrolls.   
"I not turn you to anything, Miss. Accursed spring of   
Juusenkyo give you body. Only one who tell you why is   
one of Guardian of Juusenkyo."  
  
Akane asked, " "Guardian"?"  
  
Rummaging through one of the packs, Mr. Chorus brought   
out a clean and relatively undamaged white martial   
arts uniform. "Guardian protect Juusenkyo from   
outside. Person, thing come, go they not know." He   
turned with the kempo-gi. "Before I come here, I get   
their permission, always."  
  
Akane saw that the gi was meant for him. He looked   
down at the one that he, as a girl, had fought the   
naked man, as a panda, in. {Well, there wouldn't be as   
much exposed boy-flesh if I put it on.}  
  
He took it. {But I'd first have to (Gulp!) strip out   
of this one.}  
  
Mr. Chorus went to rummaging through the other pack.   
"People wish for new body. People want be man, woman.   
Some people even want be animal. Spring area be very   
crowded, be popular tourist spot, if people know." He   
pulled out another, larger, kempo-gi. He turned to the   
Japanese boy, "Juusenkyo then not be accursed ground,   
yes?"  
  
Akane, still holding the boy's gi, said, "Er..., yes.   
I guess." {He's saying the Guardians only want certain   
kinds of people popping up in their precious springs?   
Warrior candidates, maybe?}  
  
Akane looked down at the muscular body he was in, now.   
{Is, is that why they gave me...this body?}  
  
= = =  
When Mr. Chorus {If that IS his name.} went outside   
with the naked man's clothes, Akane was left to take   
change out of the clothes he had on. While he was   
coming to grips with the thought of getting a guy's   
body naked, she lost the wooden mallet back to   
wherever she'd pulled it originally.  
  
{Don't think about it, just do it, get it over with  
...} an edgy Akane told himself as quivering hands went   
to the ties that held the pants on his {warrior's?}   
body. A spasm, then a jerk went through him at the last   
moment, as HER reflexes fought with the body's--  
  
Rip! The pants came off in one tattered remnant.  
  
"What does THAT prove!!?!" she told the invisible   
Guardians she thought might be still testing her. "My   
OWN body would've been strong enough to do that: This   
pants and coat are ALREADY rags!"  
  
A woman's voice said, "But this is the body that is   
NOT cursed."  
  
Akane looked towards the square window towards the   
back of the whitewashed cabin. Standing on its sill   
was a very little old lady with her gray hair done up   
in a Chinese bun. Akane thought of her as a lady not   
only for the refined, if overly precise, Japanese   
dialect she used but also because of her fine silk red   
robe with its black dragon writhing over the front. As   
another sign of her station was the ornately carved   
staff she carried. It was nearly three times as tall   
as the woman herself.   
  
Akane told her, "This is the body I curse! More than   
that cute little redhead you gave me before!"  
  
The woman said, "I am one of the Guardians of   
Juusenkyo. Our place is not to decide WHO is cursed,   
let alone what that curse shall be."  
  
Akane cried, "What IS your place? At the betting   
table, taking bets over who wins and loses in these   
so-called 'Warrior Initiations'!?!! The game is over:   
Give me my own brunet, brown-eyed, NORMAL Japanese   
girl-body back!!!"  
  
She said, "That is not what we do! And as for what is   
your own body--" The small doyen leaped for the   
ground a meter and a half in front of him. Akane still   
took a step back, not wasn't yet ready to go into the   
defend-or-attack stance. She did not see the old woman   
as that kind of a threat, yet.  
  
She should have: Quicker than he could react, the   
ornate staff flew for his testicles.  
  
And stopped.  
  
Akane shoved the staff away, "What's the idea!?!! It   
may've been decades since you've seen a naked guy, but   
I'm not interested in--" Akane finally realized, and   
saw, that the kempo-coat didn't hang down far enough   
to cover the subject.   
  
He screamed, "AAA!!" and pulled the front of the coat   
down (and raising it in the back). His face went red.   
  
The old woman chuckled, "It is true. You are, in fact,   
a girl. A male would automatically know he had to   
protect his..."family jewels"." She raised her staff,   
and asked, "How did you come to be in a body that has   
not yet drowned?"  
  
It took a few stumbling starts before Akane could say,   
"I, I thought...you could tell me."  
  
"I cannot tell you," from a long, flaring, black-  
trimmed sleeve the woman produced, "but perhaps the "I   
Ching" sticks can."  
  
Akane looked at the ancient red leather container. "A   
fortune-telling technique?"  
  
The woman said, "That is the true purpose of the   
Guardians." She removed the gold cap. "The sticks are   
what decided the boy would be allowed into Juusenkyo."   
  
She held the open box out in front of her on top of   
her palms, as if she were presenting a gift, "I am   
called Attar. And you?"  
  
Akane was already bent over; and she had no difficulty   
deciding to let go of the hem of the kempo coat   
pressed up against the opposing sex. She put her hands   
out to accept the offering, "A, Akane, Tendou."  
  
Madam Attar slid the wooden sticks out onto his palms.   
"Akane Tendou, may the sticks recognize you, and give   
you...your destiny."  
  
Akane almost straightened up, "What??"  
  
Madam Attar said, "Unlike what the legends say, the   
true purpose of Juusenkyo is to shape destiny. We,   
the Guardians, can strengthen or weaken the destiny of   
each visitor. But before we can do that service, we   
must first know what your destiny is meant to be."  
  
Akane could just curl her fingers around the "I Ching"   
sticks, "I don't want to know my destiny!! I want my   
body back--The one I was born with!!"  
  
Madam Attar said with what look like sincerity, "If   
there is a cure for you, it will be revealed in your   
destiny."  
  
Akane asked, "Cure?!"  
  
The old woman nodded. "Cast the sticks, and find out   
what answers we mortals are allowed to see."  
  
Akane thought, {Well, what have I got to lose, I   
guess.} and--   
  
The voice of the naked man bellowed, "RANMA, my son!!"  
  
Startled, Akane's hand jumped. The sticks scattered   
over the dirt floor.  
  
Mr. Chorus said, "Most sorry, Madam Attar! He get   
away!"  
  
Madam Attar vaulted with her staff, and whacked the   
broad man in kempo-gi over his baldhead. "You may have   
changed the course of destiny!!"  
  
Rubbing the spot that still ached from being hit by a   
hammer, Genma demanded, "Who are you, madam!!?!"  
  
Akane went and got the unruined pants from where she'd   
dropped them, "If it's really destiny, then it could   
not really be changed!"  
  
Holding out her staff to keep everybody away from the   
sticks on the ground, Madam Attar told them, "The   
modern term for destiny is probability."   
  
Genma told the old woman, "A true martial artist makes   
his own destiny. And by his own efforts changes the   
odds to... Is she going to tell us our fortune?" The   
tone of his voice had changed to one of interest.  
  
Mr. Chorus nodded, "Yes! Madam Attar read people very   
good. She always more right than even Cologne."  
  
Akane, having put the wrong leg in a pants leg, was   
now putting it in the right one, "What does a cheap   
perfume have to do with knowing about the future?"  
  
Mr. Chorus said, "No, Perfume is not cheap woman.   
Madam Colo--"  
  
Madam Attar ordered, "Quiet!! I have to sort through   
this scrawl."   
  
Akane asked, "Can't I just do it over?"  
  
Genma said, "Ranma, that is not how the arcane arts   
work."  
  
Akane told him, "My name is not RANMA!!"  
  
Madam Attar cried, "I have found him!"  
  
Genma asked, "Who?"  
  
Akane told him, "Ranma!" pulling up the pants. Then   
she said to Attar, "Your magic sticks failed! They   
don't recognize it's me inside his body!"  
  
Madam Attar informed her as she stooped to pick up the   
"I Ching" sticks, "They have recognized his destiny is   
YOUR destiny. Both your cures can only be found in TRUE   
love!"  
  
Akane was tying the pants on. "True...Come again??"  
  
She aimed all of the sticks at Akane and Genma, "There   
is a serious imbalance in Yin! And that MUST be   
corrected!!"  
  
The wooden sticks hit shiatsu/pressure points that   
rendered the two temporarily immobile.  
  
Mr. Chorus cried, "Madam Attar, what you do!!?!"  
  
She assured him, "I shall give you a shampoo, and you   
shall forget this ever happened."   
  
She then brought out joss/incense sticks from her   
sleeves. "I am very sorry, child. That love must NOT   
be gentle or sweet." She started using the joss sticks   
as darts, sticking them in his (and Genma's)   
acupuncture points. "And as long as you have the body   
linked to accursed body, YOU are the one who has must   
fulfill Ranma's destiny." She then made a book of   
matches appear from her sleeves, "As he must fulfill   
your part in it."  
  
She lit the joss sticks, starting the same moxibustion   
treatment Dr. Tofu had already given Ranma in Akane's   
body. "May the love your souls have for each other be   
strong enough to continue through your ordeals..." She   
stood over the body pin-cushioned with burning incense   
sticks, and prayed: " "May the Curse of Juusenkyo lead   
to a greater curse"."  
  
  
Notes Below:  
  
In this Alternative Ranma, the Musk are, at best, false  
claimants to Juusenkyo. It is the Amazons that are the   
Guardians of the accursed springs. Why? A greater   
curse?? The Amazons are like those on the world we are   
familiar with. How pure do you think their motives are? 


	6. A 2-R 03: 101

Akane Two-Ranma By Ron Dow75  
  
03: 101  
  
Akane Tendou dreamed. She dreamed of falling into her bathtub at home in Japan and coming up in a spring in the wilds of China. Only it wasn't HER body she'd come up in. It was a petit redhead with a size D bust! It was all part of her test to become a true warrior: If she could make a warrior out of that cute thing, she would prove herself worthy of greater challenges.  
  
Or was there another reason she had ended up in Juusenkyo? Had it all been an accident? She talked in her sleep, "No! I have a destiny.I am going to be a warrior. My name will be respected.They will have to repeat Akan--"  
  
Zznap! Zpop! Zzack! --her name was cut off before the vocal cords could say it. Why!!?! All she could grab onto was, "Shampoo 101". And an old woman's voice saying, "And to insure that it will keep its hold, one must not forget the conditioner!"  
  
Outside of her dream, the solid, ponytail male body she was in did not feel like tossing and turning. An old woman in a red silk robe with a black dragon writhing over had used the body as an altar. Akane still clearly remembered lying face up wearing only an open kempo-gi coat, and the Chinese woman sticking incense sticks into the guy's body. When she'd lit them, she muttered something about a "curse"; she then told Akane, "The destiny of both you and Ranma is at stake! Whether that is good or bad, I do not know yet. I do know this: Destiny does have crossroads, and what can change the path taken is free will. Your ability to go beyond what karma has programmed for you comes from your soul. Therefore, I must weaken your power to choose!  
  
"This moxibustion/herb-burning treatment does not weaken your body, but weakens the influence you, Akane Tendou, can have over the destiny that rightfully belongs to Ranma. Karma has given this body and life for him. This body carries most of what the boy has learned throughout that life. This identity of his is what must be allowed to operate."  
  
The small woman stepped within Akane's glazed eyesight. "The body does not have a soul. It responds to stimuli. When it does not have a strong suggestion on how to act in pre-determined way, OR when it is confronted with a true choice, then the soul within it can direct the body."  
  
She then leaned her very stern face over Akane-in-Ranma. "It is your duty as one destined to be the helpmate of Ranma to consider what he would want, and have his body act accordingly."  
  
Akane began to struggle and squirm against the acupressure technique that had paralyzed her. Hearing that she was expected to be the "good little female" and defer to the "the better sex" was too much for her to lie there and take.  
  
The old woman shook her head. "I wish I could have you believing you WERE Ranma. But that would risk your connection to your old life and its destiny. Hypnotism would be the less violent answer. But first, as the saying goes, "How can one be expected to be like Xuan Zang if one is does not know who he is?" Perhaps when you come to know Ranma and hold his identity in some regard.."  
  
She reached into one of her long flaring sleeves. "As for which identity will have sway over the accursed body, a young human girl, I believe--"  
  
Suddenly Akane became fully awake: "Hey!! That's cold!!!" she cried, rising from the straw on the dirt floor and kicking at the blanket that surrounded her small body. She actually found the bouncing about of too large boobs welcoming. For a moment. And her pedaling legs found nothing any girl wouldn't find between her legs. It just wasn't hers. Like the too large boobs. {Okay, it's not my body: But it is a girl's body, not that guy's. So why are the creeps I feel moving around from the back and around to the boobs, buns and sex!?!}  
  
A man's voice barked, "Ranma!! You'd rather be a girl!?!! Well, let this is your first lesson!!" And the man who claimed to be the boy's father yanked the blanket out from under and over her. He also took something else from her.  
  
Akane was spilled out onto the floor--without any pants!! She quickly tumbled over onto one shin, the other knees up. It did not even try to cover her privates. On top of that, the body wouldn't hold the opening of Ranma's oversized gi coat closed. The small hands, instead, were raised in fists. She screamed, "What'd you do that for!!?!"  
  
The martial artist she'd first met as a man when he was naked told her, "As a girl you'd better learn to go without pants, boy!" There was something very shiny about his head that caught Akane's glare, {Do bald men shampoo??}  
  
Shaking THAT thought {Shampoo 110} from the head, Akane yelled at him, "Fine!! But give me a sskirt! -And, p, panties!! What kinda gir-l do you think I am!!?!" Her stomach clenched. {Why is it hard to say skirt and panties??}  
  
The man got a gleam in his eye before he went into a weeping act, "My son!! That I would ever hear such words come out of your mouth!!"  
  
Akane yelled, "Stupid old man! This ain't MY mouth!!" {What's happened to my language?!!?!}  
  
The man in the kempo-gi/martial arts uniform, "No, that is NOT the mouth of my son! That is a mouth better suited for lipstick!!"  
  
Akane told him, "I don't use lipstick often! But when I do, it's usually a matte!" The clench became a fist in her belly.  
  
The man bellowed, "Ranma, now I know you're mocking your father!!"  
  
Akane's light body leaped back from the gale-rising blow just in time.  
  
But no sooner had she touched down on the balls on her new bare feet {Stop paying attention to the way the breasts move under the coat!}, her small body sprang back at the large man. "This is all YOUR fault, Old Man!!" {It is?? It certainly seems a natural thing to say.}  
  
The "old man" lashed out as he dodged out of the way. {At least he wasn't thinking of the peep show he could've had!} But, while Akane felt mortified inside, the redhead's body lacked any sense of modesty {Only of repugnance.} as it ducked, and somersaulted feet-over-head until they struck the whitewashed walls of the Chinese cabin. Bending the knees until her bare thighs touched the back of the gi coat, the body exploded off the solid adobe-and-wood wall. {The draft! I wish I had shirt on.} That HAD to be the guy's reaction.  
  
It had all been done so quickly, the more muscle-bound man was just turning to meet her attack. Akane felt impact against his padded belly. The body transferred all of her momentum into adult and landed, coiled, and ready for his next move.  
  
The Chinese guide entered the cabin in time to yell, "Not the water!"  
  
Genma Saotome slammed up against a stack of metal cans against the back wall. K-dong! K-dang! K-deng! Sploosh!  
  
Yet another man was seeing her bottomless girl-body, now! Akane joined with the body to demand, "What'd you do with my pants!!"  
  
The panda answered, "Barao bwera!"  
  
Mr. Chorus dropped the firewood he'd brought in and rushed over cans that lay cracked open on and about the panda. He was yelling about as loudly as he could in his naturally quiet voice, "Sirs! This water is all we have! Water is brought in from outside Valley of Juusenkyo!"  
  
As the panda picked up one of the ruined containers, Akane saw that there was less than a week's worth of drinking water; there would be no baths. The body she was in strode up to the larger creature, and tried to lift it up by its chest hairs, "What'd you do with my pants, Pop!!?!"  
  
Angry, Akane thought, {Honestly! Didn't this Ranma have enough sense to just search for where the man had hidden them!?!}  
  
The black-and-white beast just turned its muzzle away in an act of disdain. Akane could feel the body's emotional reaction, "I SAID where's my pants!!" The body actually tried to shake the heavier animal. {No, it DOESN'T look like this Ranma had any sense!}  
  
But the body's small fists did manage to pull at the fur hairs {Transfer more support to the buns!}. "Berrao!" the panda protested, bringing its clawed paws down for the redhead's head.  
  
The 52-minus kilogram/115-minus pound body turned, grabbed hold of the front leg and flipped the 140-plus kilogram/300-plus pound beast a couple of meters/yards away.  
  
Akane thought, {Wow! Despite the handicaps Ranma's identity is placing on the girl's body by refusing to accept her, it knows how to fight!} Then she wondered, {This isn't Ranma's guy-body. Why do I think HIS body is the one that's telling the girl's what to do??}  
  
Looking at her right hand, Akane saw the answer. On its ring finger was the gold ring Madam Attar had placed on Ranma's guy-body. On it was embossed an oval that a creature's snake body made with its rooster's head and tail bent within. The Chinese witch had said, "This will unite the two bodies, by-passing most of your own will."  
  
Akane wanted to take it off immediately, so that she could claim ONE body as her own.  
  
But she was hit by a wooden sign that the panda had thrown.  
  
Mr. Chorus said, "Oo, panda learn how to take things from sign space," and he pulled out one of his ringed placard books. On that sign were the Chinese characters for--  
  
Rubbing the injured face, Akane yelled, "It's 'sign space', alright!! There's nothing written on it!!" The space for a message WAS blank.  
  
The Chinese guide scratched his Mao cap with the yellow star, "Panda maybe can think of nothing?"  
  
A claw of the panda showed the red under one lower eyelid and stuck out its tongue. "Biii!"  
  
Akane said, "Oh, I think it has something to say!" The body was even more certain: It cocked a fist and charged.  
  
The animal turned and ran out the open door on its four feet.  
  
The body was yelling at it, "You think this is a game, Stupid Old Man!!?! I'll show you games!!!" While Akane's mind was yelling, {Idiot!! Don't go running outside without a bottom!!}  
  
= = =  
  
Akane saw that the panda had veered off the path and was headed for one of the mountains that looked like the teeth of a gigantic carnivore. "You can't hide from me, Pop!! This time, you're gonna get what you deserve!!" {How many times has this Ranma said this!?! If it's imbedded into his standard list of responses, I don't think "Pop" has really EVER gotten what he deserved. Talk about useless!}  
  
The body ran into the trees around the base of the hard limestone peak. She followed the trail and sounds the panda made as best it could. But lost it when it apparently had doubled back somewhere. {Now, are you ready to give up and get dressed!!?!} Akane mind ineffectively yelled at the girl-body made stupid by the ring that connected her to the guy's.  
  
It was a foolish idea. Akane could feel the anger that wouldn't leave. In that moment when the body was searching for a buried impulse that would tell it what to next, Akane asserted herself. It was still unwilling to give up, (How stubborn was this Ranma!?!} So she told it, "At least take the ring off!"  
  
The hand rose to take those eyes further away from the very jutting breasts. Her tongue between her lips {Stop being cute!}, the girl's fingers tugged at the ring, and tried to twist it off, and retreated and yanked. While the body was doing this, her eyes began to wonder even more away from the curves. The only thing new to look at was.up. Feeling how that the ring would not come off the way she was doing it, the body took an interest in something else: (I don't WANTA climb a mountain!!! Is THIS what Ranma did when he got frustrated!?!!}  
  
Her only answer was the girl-body lifting her foot as it reached for the to find its first handholds.  
  
= = =  
  
Akane Tendou was afraid of water she could drown in, and horror-show weird (Just the sound of eerie music can make my flesh crawl when I HAD my own flesh!} But heights weren't one of her fears.  
  
The body allowed her to turn the head and look down 10 meters/yards. And up, it was about 10 more. The mountains about didn't seem that high only because Juusenkyo was a mountain valley within them.  
  
Akane wasn't frightened, but that didn't mean this wasn't dangerous. Forget the fact that Ranma the martial artist had enough command of his blood flow that his body was restricting the amount this body's most girlish parts. There was something wrong with the way the body was climbing! He seemed to have almost no awareness that a girl lacked the upper body strength of a guy! The Ranma-body was insisting on attacking the steep rock face by pulling itself up. Saving her breath in the thin mountain air, she cried in mind, {Guys!! Their answer to everything that's not sex has to involve their arms and pectorals! I wish I could tell him the news that this ISN'T how you treat a girl's body!!}  
  
It didn't even get the message when the girl's large boobs kept getting in the way! "Hey! It hurts bumpin' them up against the outcroppings!!"  
  
They came to a ledge that jutted out enough that the girl-body had to go around it or pull itself under it to reach the top. {I was right! The idiot!! Ranma COULDN'T just take the easy way!} It would have been easy if this were his guy-body. But this was the redhead's body. Akane felt the slender arm muscles of a young girl working again at exercises they were not used to, muscles that reached, at last, the ledge and wanted nothing more than to relax for a while.  
  
But it couldn't, because those blasted oversized boobs were in the way. The Ranma-part of the girl's body wanted to ignore the hurt and just drag the only pliant mammary organs across the edge and move onwards.  
  
Akane had been struggling mightily to make the body to be more cautious, or, at least, slow down: All to no effect! The Ranma-trained body did what it wanted to do. But SHE, too, was a martial artist: If one technique didn't work, try another!! {Easier said than done,} thought the girl getting special coaching JUST to learn to review different options.  
  
Within her mind was still the body image of Akane Tendou, brunet Japanese girl of the Anything-Goes School! Yesterday, during her battle with the panda, that image had started to learn to cooperate with the other girl's body. That body, because of the rooster-snake ring, was now directed by the Ranma-body. But it still had the basic reflexes and habits of the original girl--or the body would be like a fish out of water. The body of one person is basically unsuited to operate another's, they are each too different. And a girl's was MORE different, still, from a guy's!  
  
That was her opening! Akane focused the frustration in her soul energy into the outlets available. On the level of the muscles and tendons, they were better than a normal girl's, perhaps; but they were still shorter and weaker, less toned and tuned than those of Akane's body-image. But they WERE closer to hers than Ranma's. His identity had the constant impulse to reject the girly, sissy body. {Oh-rrr! He actually makes me FEEL slimy about being a girl!} This was the opening Akane needed to assert some of her own impulses.  
  
It was still the girl-body that moved the legs, not Akane's body image, but the legs did do what they needed to do! The girl-thigh muscles were stronger than the guy's. The legs straddled the rocky outcropping and scooted the D-cups out and around the edge and onto the top of the ledge without any more scrapes and bruises.  
  
Thereafter the body hurried up the 10 meters/yards to the pinnacle. The lower half of the girl-body was more under the control of its own reflexes. Muscles cramped, and spasmed at times in conflict with Akane. But Akane could back away here. She had to bite her metaphoric lip and let Ranma's identity dominate the redhead's upper body. (His identity is proud about this. That must be why he's letting the blood return to the breasts!}  
  
When they reached the summit, all of the redhead's body, guy-led-top and girl-led-bottom, was fatigued from the effort. And Akane could no longer maintain the conversion of her soul force into energy. Besides not having had extensive training in using her ki in typical martial arts situations, having to fight the primal energy of somebody else's body while mediating with chi of yet another body that was not her own was just too wearing on her.  
  
Panting and sweating, Akane and the girl-body stood there bent over, using the knees to help hold her up. Her eyes wandered over the skin that gi-coat did not cover, front and legs. It had many bruises, scraps and cuts. She almost smiled. "Not a pretty sight."  
  
One good thing seemed to have come from the strenuous activity. The anger that had filled both her and Ranma's identity before had lessened to a simmer. She and the body started stretching out the sore, tight muscles.  
  
That's when her eyes fell on the panda.  
  
The black-and-white beast was leaning against a tree on the edge of a bamboo grove. It wasn't just taking it easy, it was laughing at a manga magazine!!  
  
She screamed, "How'd YOU, a panda, get up here before me!!?!"  
  
The animal looked up from its reading as if noticing her for the first time. Akane and the body stomped a bare, damaged foot, "Well!?!!"  
  
'Innocently', it pointed over to a green sign with an arrow beside a dirt path. The larger characters were Chinese ideographs. But underneath it, in Western letters was, [Juusenkyo].  
  
That was too much, even for Akane, "Why you.!! How long'd you know about that!!?!"  
  
The panda took out something from the thick magazine it'd been using as a bookmark. It was a brochure.  
  
Akane could guess that it had a map. "You couldn'ta told me!!?! I coulda fallen, you know!!!" And she charged at the unthinking beast!  
  
= = =  
  
The Ranma-led body clambered up peaks, and bounced down peaks, stumbling, tripping, rolling or tumbling many times. But that didn't matter.  
  
The breasts felt even stranger to her, as the violent movements of the chase made it seem like they'd be torn off at any second, as they kept going in the wrong ways. But that didn't matter.  
  
Her cuts and bruises became wounds and sores. But that didn't matter.  
  
The only thing that mattered even to Akane was the thought of the satisfaction all of the identities could get knocking the stuffing out of the pretend panda bear!!  
  
"Come back here, you old fool!! Haii-Yaa!!" Kuh-thud-gaa!!  
  
{What was that?! I thought the knee struck some.one!} But still the girl- body continued the chase, leaping from height to height. She barely noticed a voice that finally had the breath to scream as it fell down into one of the springs of Juusenkyo far below the cliff.  
  
She was too far away to hear a pig squeal for help.  
  
By that time, she had to ask, "Where'd that panda go!!?!"  
  
Notes Below:  
  
Some see the concepts of Chi and Ki as being different. It is an ancient idea that the body has a 'soul' of its own. This, Chi, is the one most often meant in "Ranma ½" since it has to do with something that can be sensed (in space-time). It is the power in the physical world, concentrated within the body as its life force. Ki is the power in the spiritual world, concentrated within the soul as its personality force, here, Akane's. Through martial arts training, the soul can use its ki to increase, refine and improve on the chi of its physical form: The battle aura. That greater chi force remains within the body. A person normally doesn't take it with them when they are reincarnated, i.e., move on to another body. There ARE techniques, though, that are ki rather than chi.  
  
For example, if Ranma had some of his later abilities: Amagouriken is chi, and Akane Two-Ranma would have that technique, not Ranma One-Akane. But she wouldn't and he would be able to use Moukou Takabisha, which is ki.  
  
Here, there are two bodies, with two different chi-s. But the redhead's is an accursed form. What that means will be seen later.  
  
Why can't Ranma One-Akane do what Akane Two-Ranma just did? He HAS had much more training in using his ki. (A) He hasn't been informed as much as Akane as what has happened. (B) He has only ONE body, while Akane has two to compare and learn from. (C) Ranma has been conditioned by Genma (even beyond his applications of the "Id-Scrub-Down" technique) to think of women as foreign, alien, "them". (&) And while Akane has similar issues with the MALE body, they're not as thoroughly ingrained into her own id. In other words, Akane is disheartened (ki).  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
v 


	7. A 2-R 04: If Only

9+Akane Two-Ranma By Ron Dow75  
  
04: If Only  
  
Breaking out of the bamboo woods, Akane Tendou, the girl with a red ponytail and cuts and sores all over her petit body, caught sight of the thatched and whitewashed Chinese-style cabin that was the only base she had in Juusenkyo. Now, if only that blasted panda--or worse, its naked man underneath the fur--wasn't around. The mountain valley was apparently above most of the weather, and it wasn't that cool. But she didn't like running around, literally, without even a skirt on!  
  
The girl was at least 7.6 centimeters/3 inches shorter than Akane had been, which allowed the Ranma's oversized kempo coat to better cover the parts a girl wouldn't want to show in mixed company. It felt almost like a miniskirt. {Not that I've worn that many miniskirts. Modest dresses are what are truly feminine.} Suddenly the thought of Dr. Tofu rose up. He liked Kasumi. Her big sister wore even MORE modest dresses than Akane had.  
  
As Akane headed for the cabin, she tugged at the bottom of the coat, trying to get it to go lower still. At least the Ranma-identity let her. If he didn't have any shame, at least he wasn't an exhibitionist.  
  
= = =  
  
"Ranma! Just look at you!! Not even in a real fight, and you look like the loser!" {Oh, wonderful. The jerk's father can talk, now.} The wide, middle- aged, bald man in a both a kempo-gi coat AND pants was coming to meet her.  
  
She yelled, "I TOLD you, I ain't Ran--" Zzaff! Zznick! The shampoo-and- conditioner treatment the Guardian of Juusenkyo Attar had given her wouldn't even let her say that!  
  
She turned to something Ranma would say, "What'd you do with the pants!! Give me them, or I'll take yours, Old Man!!"  
  
The father was inspired again. He adopted the defend-or-attack position. "It's the man who wears the pants. Are you ready to prove yourself a man?!" Only IF this girl he still considered his son demonstrated he DIDN'T want to be a girl, could he overlook what Ranma might have to do in his girl form. After all, Genma Saotome wasn't above unconventional tactics, himself.  
  
Akane did not know his name, yet, let alone the way he thought. But, angrily, accusingly, she thought, {He's one of those who thinks women SHOULDN'T be martial artists! Only video game flashers would train without pants!}  
  
While the Ranma-identity's conditioned response was, "Hah! This'll show who the 'man' is!" as he launched the redhead-body at the conceited sensei who knew only how to push his son's buttons.  
  
Akane screamed at the identity that couldn't, or WOULDN'T hear her, {Idiot!! This time his battle plan is different! A direct assault isn't going to work! Don't you know a girl's reach isn't as long as--}  
  
SOCK!  
  
= = =  
  
"Hey! That's hot!!" Akane's male voice cried, trying to sit up.  
  
He raised a tough hand to his thick head, "Ow! Why am I hurtin' in places I no longer have?" Besides the pain, Akane-kun briefly noticed he was on the grass outside the cabin. She also noticed, "I SAID I want some pants!!" He tore his eyes away from his perfect legs.  
  
Genma dropped the teakettle. "Why didn't I see it yesterday!?!"  
  
The Ranma-body lashed out blindly, while Akane-kun said, "How could you NOT see--" With the other hand, he pulled down on the coat.  
  
The Chinese guide was sitting with his back to the sidewall of the cabin, smoking from his very long-stem pipe. "Visitors to Juusenkyo get many surprises. Many not discover all until after they leave valley. If then."  
  
Genma nodded, "That has to be it. I was thinking only of the relief we shared that my son had safely returned to his own form yesterday."  
  
Trying to get up from the ground without exposing himself more than he could, Akane-kun said, "That's not how *I remember it!"  
  
Genma ignored those remarks as his fist grasped the epiphany, "Do you realize what has happened, boy!!?!"  
  
On his feet, Akane yelled, "I ain't a guy!!" His sex, though, was rising to argue differently.  
  
The broad man reached out and pulled the front of Ranma's kempo coat wide open. He demanded, "Don't you see, Ranma!?!! Look, see what has happened to you, boy!!?!!"  
  
The body slapped the man's arms away at pressure points. Akane-kun told him, "I SAID I ain't!!" The unintended effect was that the coat was pulled from his shoulders, too. "And I don't WANNA look at it!!"  
  
The father hung on, "Yesterday you were attacked by a great clawed animal!"  
  
The body set himself as his hands took hold of the man's coat. "That was YOU!!" Akane-kun, too, wanted to throw the man handler down.  
  
As Akane-and-Ranma tested for leverage, the inspired martial artist went on, "Then this morning, you gave a hard chase over rocks and peaks!"  
  
The leverage was found. "That was ALSO because a you!!!" he yelled, using jujitsu to toss the disturbed man.  
  
The man held fast, and the coat was torn from Ranma's body. All that remained on him was the black belt.  
  
Akane-kun covered himself: His arm over his muscular chest {Reflexes! I don't need to do that in THIS body!}, and a hand lower down. Without thought he grasped the semi-flaccid male. {Oh-oo-rr! This feeling is different from what I felt as a girl!} The girl inside the guy was at least thankful that his identity didn't want to enjoy himself.  
  
Genma rolled onto his knees. Holding up the coat, he said, "You're healed!! Your wounds, your cuts, your sores, your bruises, your acne are GONE!!!"  
  
Lifting the offending hand OVER the male member, Akane was in the middle of wondering why HIS sex was responding to HER feelings, when she heard what wound-up man was talking about. Akane looked at over the almost totally exposed body.  
  
He was right! The body was perfect, if not superb.  
  
The Chinese guide, Mr. Chorus saw that the two were ready, perhaps, to finally listen to him. Emptying the ashes against a stone, the soft-looking man said, "Body that heal self is part of curse of Juusenkyo."  
  
Genma got to his feet in the direction of the guide. "How can you SAY that's a curse! It's every martial artist's dream to be able to take hits and be able to come back for more!!"  
  
Akane thought, {What kind of a masochist is THIS man!?!} He asked, "Then WHY can I still feel the pain!?!!"  
  
Mr. Chorus took out a pouch with shredded herbs in it; "Healing power is like hammer power. When warrior understand how power work, he destroy power."  
  
Akane said, "Hammer power"? She didn't make the connection with the wooden mallet she'd hit Genma with yesterday because of a pickup in the breeze. She didn't like the reminder that this naked male body was one SHE was in: "Gimme some clothes!!!"  
  
Feeling the bouncing, wagging male member as he ran, Akane-kun forced himself and the boy's body to get a grip on it again. It did not make for an effective charge.  
  
Genma ignored the lamed attempt and went past to the guide, to say in a demanding voice, "A true martial artist is always prepared to understand and develop a new technique!"  
  
Mr. Chorus filled the small bowl of his pipe; "That is part of way curse work. The more greedy for power warrior is, the less power he has."  
  
Putting his bare, flat butt away from them, the Ranma-identity bellowed, "If you don't gimme something, I'll, I'll." A time came for choices: Akane finished the threat, "I'll turn YOU into a panda!! Let's see how you like havin' those clothes ruined!"  
  
Genma told him, "Quiet!! This man is about to reveal to us secrets that should not be revealed!"  
  
Akane-kun cried, "Talk about something that shouldn't be revealed!!" And a wooden mallet appeared in her free hand without her being really aware of she had the wished for the weapon.  
  
Genma remembered the thing from yesterday. He glanced back at Mr. Chorus, "Are you sure that I will heal, as well?"  
  
The Chinese man had closed the pouch and had brought out a match; "You not want know."  
  
Genma held up a hand towards the boy, "Alright, Ranma!" while tossing Ranma's gi-coat. "I'll get your pants!"  
  
The hammer disappeared as Akane and the body reached out and caught it. {I hope this sex of his doesn't get any more filled with lust.} It seemed to have stopped at a neither/nor state. But the hand over it felt contaminated.  
  
Genma moved to the covered box near the Chinese man smoking his pipe. He pulled the pants out of the firewood box. "Here! Let's see if you ARE a man!" he said, throwing THAT at him.  
  
Akane used the arm with the coat to get them; "What'd you mean by--Hey! These stink!"  
  
The man got a wicked gleam behind his glasses, "Even in sleep, a true martial artist needs to be alert to any disturbance. Be ashamed, Boy! You couldn't wake up for the most basic of causes!"  
  
Akane's mind got angry at Madam Attar for putting her under so deep she wasn't able to. Akane's embarrassment over hearing a MAN talk about something so personal, became more charged by the difference as he realized, (I wasn't the girl at the time. I had this..}  
  
The one with still naked guy body yelled, "Gimme something I CAN wear!!!"  
  
Genma said, "Ranma! How many changes of clothes do you think we have!?! Clean them!!" And he looked prepared to take him on again.  
  
Akane cried, "Are you nuts!!? I ain't goin' anywhere NEAR those springs!!"  
  
= = =  
  
(At least it should be easy for me to change out of HIS body,} Akane thought as she came out of the cabin as the redhead girl in bare feet but green pants. She was completing the buttoning up of the green coat she'd found. It was only a little big, so it couldn't belong to Mr. Chorus (No offense, but I think it's been decades since he could've worn this size.} The green uniform was a typical Mao design {We Are in China, after all}; she even wore a cap with a red star on the front. {I wonder how I look? There was no mirror inside. --What am I thinking!? I won't be seeing ME!}  
  
She barely heard what Mr. Chorus and the 'father' was talking about: "How can wish space NOT be wish space??!"  
  
The Chinese guide told him, "Wish is not wish, if warrior expect. Wish is if-only. Everybody have their own if-only inside of them. Ranma think 'If only I have hammer'. I think 'If only I have sign'.  
  
Genma voice trembled, "And once I say "I will HAVE what I want", it is no longer if-only."  
  
Mr. Chorus nodded, "The more warrior think about things, the more things not happen."  
  
Genma nodded, "Talk about organic. This is a technique that is DESTROYED by practice." He wondered if he DID know too much, now. If there WERE one wish he could have, it was 'If only I wore what I was wearing before I became a panda'. These were the last clothes he had.  
  
Akane-chan came around the corner of the cabin, saying, "I hope you don't mind me borrowin' this."  
  
Mr. Chorus was tapping the cooling ashes from his pipe into his hand, "That is for when I train Plum, my daughter, here."  
  
Akane asked, " "Plum"? If I may ask, Mr. Chorus, why'd you name your daughter "Plum"?"  
  
He said, "I call her Plum, because people call me "Grape"."  
  
Akane stared dumbly. " "Grape"? "Plum"??" She knew about grape-plum jelly, and they were lip liner colors.  
  
He laughed, "Both are purple!"  
  
Akane still didn't understand. "So your name is.?"  
  
He said, "You can call me Chorus."  
  
She thought, {Well, it DOES seem to describe what he's been doing, I guess.} "Mr. Chorus, are you sure there's no way for me to get my own body back?"  
  
Mr. Chorus looked at the girl-body, "You not change back to boy? Oo, not good for Juusenkyo reputation, if that happen."  
  
Akane-chan told him, "Yes, I can become the boy! But I wanna become a girl --No, not this girl! I wanna be the girl I--" Znapf, Zzert! Shampoo 101 short-circuited her attempt to identify herself.  
  
The Chinese guide turned to the father, "Oh, poor sir. Look like your son want be sexy girl, not cute girl."  
  
Akane-chan's frustration increased, {Madam Attar must've given him--Both of them, I bet!--the shampoo treatment! They can't think of me as anyone but the Ranma boy!}  
  
Genma bellowed, "Ran-ma! I am disappointed in you! I raise you to fulfill the promise I made to make a real man out of you, and, and.you want to be the opposite!"  
  
Splash!  
  
The wet Akane-kun yelled in his tenor voice, "Hey! Where'd the hot water come from!!?!"  
  
Mr. Chorus rose from his seat, "Sir! You break no hot water rule! Wish is for only ordinary water!"  
  
Genma looked down at open teakettle he held in his hand. He paled when he realized, "I, I haven't given up one of my wishes, have I?"  
  
He tossed the kettle aside with vigor. In a voice of righteousness, he declared, "It doesn't matter! Who but a father has the right to break the rules when it comes to helping his own son! I OWE it to Ranma to lead him back to the path of true manhood!"  
  
Akane cried, "WHAT!?! I don't WANNA be a man!!"  
  
Genma rebuked him, "Quiet! As your sensei, it is now up to me to retrain you in the ways of manliness!"  
  
Akane used Ranma's-identity to get into the stance, "Ha! That'll be the day, Old Man!"  
  
The "Old Man" looked pleased, as if he'd just maneuvered the youngster into making the first mistake in a game of shogi/Japanese chess. He quirked a smile, "I am glad to see there is ONE thing you have not learned."  
  
The Ranma-body ran at the larger male. He got a couple of strong blows in on the adult, but the one hit the father scored sent Akane-kun backwards, stumbling for almost a meter/yard.  
  
Again the Ranma-identity attacked with male force. Again the punch and heel- thrust used this time did no real damage to the man the boy's emotions were raging against.  
  
Again the father shoved the teenager further backwards.  
  
The bald man WAS beginning to show the bruises from the abuse Akane-and- Ranma were giving him. "Ha! Give it up, fool! It looks like you're NOT gonna heal!"  
  
This time Genma kicked him HARD in the gut. Akane felt it and joined the body in doubling over in pain. "Let's see if you can heal when injured as a guy, Ranma--Not an accursed GIRL!!" And in as much contempt as he was able to deliver to his unfortunate son, he tossed him as far away from him as he could.  
  
Only the skills Ranma'd gained practicing falls kept Akane-kun from being seriously hurt as she landed further down the hill. Those skills that had been drilled into his bones allowed him to tumble and roll yet further down the slope.  
  
At last Akane-kun could feel the breath that had been slammed out of him return. He put his foot out and stopped his slide.  
  
He, the two identities, got up on the balls of his feet and a knee ready to charge again.  
  
But Genma had rushed to meet him. At just the right moment he lifted the youngster up over his head.  
  
Mr. Chorus yelled at them in his soft voice as he ran towards them: "Not that one, Sir! If original body accursed again, body count as drowned! Body gone to you forever!"  
  
Akane-kun wondered what the man was talking about. {I don't think I'm going to like it, though!}  
  
The father told him, "Half-a-man is better than being all girl half-the- time! Facing being a freak of nature should make you fight to stay dry!"  
  
Akane-kun twisted his head around, "What are you babblin' on about, you old- -" He was being carried towards one of those springs!  
  
Genma said, "The guide pointed this spring out to me. THIS is the spring of drowned young man, Dan-niichuan!"  
  
Mr. Chorus was finally close enough to be heard clearly. Huffing, he yelled, "Yhou not understand, Sirh! That Ahccursed Spring of Drowned Boy-- Chinese OPERA Singer!"  
  
Genma yelled over his shoulder, just as he was about to throw his son's body into the spring, "So, Ranma will be able to sing in Chinese!"  
  
The man reached out to grab the boy who was still meters/yards from him. "Dan play part of GIRL! Throw boy in, he become female-impersonator!"  
  
Genma cried, "WHAT!!?!"  
  
Feeling the grip loosen, Akane-kun brought his fists down against the father's back; "Ha! You wanna know what it's LIKE to be a guy when you don't WANNA be!"  
  
Akane-kun somersaulted and landed on his feet.  
  
He turned: There was the father struggling, using all of his martial arts skills of balance to keep from falling in the terrible water.  
  
Akane-kun got Ranma's smile, "All it's gonna take is one little push."  
  
Mr, Chorus was almost within reach; "Vhery tragic story of young boy and yhoung girl who come to Juusenkyo fifteen hhundred year ago."  
  
Neither Akane nor the Ranma-identity could bring himself to do that to his father. "Aw, rats!" he said, taking hold of the back of the adult's gi coat.  
  
Mr. Chorus could finally stop and catch his own breath, ".They take lovers vow! They want change to body of other. Oo, very tragic story of suicide."  
  
It downed on Akane what Mr. Chorus was talking about, "15 hundred-- You mean the identity that goes with the redhead's body might only be a girl WANNABE!!?!"  
  
Splash!  
  
As the bank gave way, Akane-kun yanked the father away from the brink of disaster. "That woulda been ONE way to lose weight!"  
  
Notes below:  
  
There are times when Ranma hurts after a battle, and times when he doesn't. It has to do with the "If-only" rule.  
  
There are times when props appear and times when they don't. I'm just attempting to set up a logical reason. Thus: When Genma WANTS to douse to turn Akane-chan into a guy, to consciously will it, he will NOT be able to do it. It is ONLY when it comes from his gut, without thinking, that the hot water can appear.  
  
And on who else has the "if-only" power. In the very first episode, the second time we saw Nabiki she was taking a picture of Akane breaking cinder blocks in the family dojo. If you look carefully, her camera disappears WITHOUT conscious thought. I hope to provide a logical explanation of why some have the "If-only" power in the Ranma-verse.  
  
But do those without this special status have the power to activate the Juusenkyo curse with their thoughts of, "If only there were a cute girl around"?  
  
You will remember that Ranma, especially in the early episodes, had very few changes of clothes. (Which is why he ran around in his boxer shorts so much of the time while Kasumi laundered them.) You may also remember that after China we didn't see his kempo-gi again.  
  
Yes, I was told the Chinese guide and his daughter appeared in later manga, and Grape and Plum are their official names. I STILL like "Mr. Chorus" better!  
  
How can the redhead girl be the Chinese female impersonator when Ranma got cursed in a different spring? The girl jumps into the Spring of Drowned Young Girl. Her body replaces the other girl's. The boy jumps in and gets his girlfriend's body. But THEN, his uncursed form jumps in again, trying to get rid of his MALE body for good. But there is no body he to replace that body with. He doesn't come up; he was as good as drowned. The girl jumps in again to rescue him. SHE gets his male body. Heartbroken that he is lost to her forever, and cursed to be reminded of him because of his body, she commits suicide in Dan-niichuan. (And who says "Yeti-Riding-Bull- Carrying-Crane-and-Eel" is complicated?)  
  
But, you may say, the redhead's body would STILL have the reflexes and identity of the original girl, not the boy. Not is she willingly, magically, GAVE herself to him.  
  
Why CAN'T the identity of the redhead be just a girl who's more girlish than Akane? Perhaps it is. But the idea that it MIGHT be a female impersonator is different.  
  
No further analysis of the how the Accursed Springs work, for now, please. 


	8. A 2-R: It Takes More Than Two...

Akane Two Ranma  
By Ron Dow75  
  
05: It Takes More Than Two...  
  
"Stop splashin' me with hot water!!" cried Akane-kun for   
the third time in fifteen minutes. The ponytailed boy in   
the Mao uniform was beyond exasperated with this wide,   
bald man who INSISTED on being a HIS father.  
  
Genma Saotome insisted again, "Ranma!!" He threw the   
teakettle away. "I raised you to be a man in all things!   
I made you swear upon every sacred object we came upon in   
our travels that you would be a man among men! They'll be   
eternities of divine retributions if you don't keep your   
sacred vows!"  
  
He raised his head and closed his eyes crying streams of   
tears. "How I remember starting our journey by taking   
that first oath upon the sacred sword of your mother's   
samurai ancestors..."  
  
Akane-kun had stopped even pretending to pay attention to   
his the overly dramatic presentations. He was so wrapped   
up in his monolog he didn't even notice she had walked   
away.  
  
Akane-kun fumed, "Maybe I shoulda let him drown in that   
Spring of Cross-dresser! It'd stop him yammerin' on about   
how important it is to be a man!"  
  
Mr. Chorus, the Chinese guide here at Juusenkyo, reminded   
boy. "If father drown in second spring, then father   
disappear. You never see him the same again!"  
  
Akane-kun said, "There's an argument FOR doin' it." Fed   
up at last with the man with the dew rag over his head,   
she asked, "Where can I get some bottles or something to   
put some a that cursed water in?"  
  
The fat man shook his head, "Oh, sir! Cursed water is   
cursed! You tempt fate. You may get wet yourself."   
  
Genma roared, "RANMA, I'm talking to you, boy!" coming   
towards them.  
  
The guide said, quickly, "Ooo, poor son. Maybe there is   
way water not change you. I protect myself this way."   
There was a way somebody could fall in an accursed spring   
and not be changed?  
  
Akane-kun said, "Quick, what is it?!"  
  
The guide said, "I can not believe I--"  
  
The secret to the protecting yourself from Juusenkyo   
water was interrupted by Genma pushing the man aside,   
"Boy! What meaning does a lifetime of struggle and   
achievement mean, if you'd rather be a weak girl!?"  
  
Akane-kun cried, "Weak!?" The word set off a reaction in   
BOTH identities.  
  
Genma was knocked to the ground. But he looked up at him,   
putting a hand to the bruise beside his lip. He smiled,   
"See, boy!? As a girl you wouldn't have hurt me nearly as   
much."  
  
Akane-kun told him, "You're right. But until I NEED to   
use the extra muscles--let me be a girl!!"  
  
Genma frowned, "Stubborn! I will not rest until I   
reawaken the manly spirit put to sleep by a silken body!"   
He then turned his head away, saying more to himself,   
"Just as marriage does."  
  
Akane-kun lifted his arms in frustration. -{It seems this   
Ranma has heard speeches like this so often his reaction   
was to tune his father out.}- With it 'nodded off',   
Akane-kun was in more control of the body. She stormed   
into the cabin, "I'M ready to leave!" -{I wish I were   
more serious about putting a curse on this man.}-  
  
Mr. Chorus sighed in relief. "Young sir not have right   
attitude. He go near Juusenkyo water again, he get curse   
again."  
  
= = =  
  
A couple of minutes later, the red haired Akane-chan was   
back with a heavy hiking pack weighing on one shoulder.   
  
Mr. Chorus cried, "Oh, sir! You can not leave yet!"  
  
Akane-chan said, "Oh, yeah!? Watch me!" and she headed   
down the path that lead away from the cabin.   
  
She'd gotten halfway down the hill, before clenching her   
teeth and a fist. She turned around and coming back up.   
There she asked, "Okay. Which way to I go?"  
  
The guide visibly relaxed. "We have wait for guardian of   
Juusenkyo. She read your fortune."  
  
Akane-chan's annoyance deepened, "She's already done   
that. It's 'cuz a her I can't even TALK like my--" Znapf!   
Zat! Attar's shampoo-and-conditioner treatment 101   
wouldn't allow her to even hint that she wasn't really   
Ranma. -{Ooorr! Why does a GUY'S destiny have to be more   
important than my own!?!}-   
  
Akane-chan turned back around, "If she wants to read my   
future, she can find me!" And she strode down the path,   
"This is a valley. There can't be too many ways out, and   
that means a path!"   
  
Her pace slowed the further she went. -{Ranma's coming   
back and taking control! I'm doing something HE wouldn't   
think of doing. What could--}-  
  
Genma yelled, "Ranma, wait up for your old man!"  
  
Both identities groaned, though for different reasons. -  
{Ranma's not a real man. He's on his father's leash! He   
has a chance to break free, and he wimps out! I'm glad I   
don't have to marry the guy.}-  
  
= = =  
  
With Akane-chan in the lead, the party of three headed   
for what looked like a gap in the high, steep mountains.   
The guide mentioned something about the mountains and   
dragon's teeth. It seemed like a good description to   
Akane. She would be glad to get out of its maw. -{Just   
because I become a guy, doesn't MEAN I have to think like   
a guy,}- she frowned at an unwanted thought. -{I will not   
think about what kind of water is found in mouths.}-  
  
They were passing the last of the springs when a small   
figure moved from out of the shadows. It was the old   
woman in the red robe with the black dragon with her long   
ornate staff. Madam Attar told them, "That is far enough.   
Your destiny has not been read."  
  
Akane-chan continued walking, "You ALREADY read my   
destiny! And listen to what it's got me!!"  
  
The little woman almost cackled. "Fine. I need to test   
how much of a...an you are, anyway."  
  
Hearing the challenge, Genma shoved Akane-chan towards   
her, "Go ahead and let battle bring out your manhood."  
  
Akane-chan looked over her shoulder at the idiot, "She's   
an old lady! I'm gonna PROVE I'm a man by beatin' up an   
old woman!?!"  
  
Madam Attar smiled, "I'm 300-years-old."  
  
Mr. Chorus said, "Oo, that is old."  
  
Genma yelled, "Forget the Code! This for your manliness!   
You have my permission to beat up anybody and their old   
lady to get it back."   
  
Akane-chan slumped, and let out a loud sigh. "I should   
just run 


	9. It Takes a Fiance

Ranma One-Akane  
By Ron Dow75  
  
05: It Takes a Fiance  
  
  
In the Furinkan High Infirmary, the nude body of Akane   
Tendou was surrounded by a mob of girls in school-dress:  
  
The short girl with big brown eyes that showed little   
white told the one they thought was Akane Tendou, "Your   
fiance does not have to be Sempai Kuno."  
  
The tall girl with long, stiff hair told her, "But you   
have to decide who IS your fiance TODAY."   
  
The girl with the perm and perfect figure said, "If you   
don't, Kuno WILL be your fiance."  
  
(A girl in the back whispered to her friend, "I would've   
thought Yuumei would want somebody rich and handsome."  
  
Her friend answered, "I guess even for her the only   
craziness you want your boyfriend to have is over you.")  
  
Ranma-and-Akane had already threatened to use martial   
arts force on them. -{It looks like there's at least one   
girl from every class in here!}- "And if I DON'T go along   
with your plans!?!"  
  
The girl still with the gift in her hands pleaded,   
"Please, Akane-chan, it will make things easier." She,   
far more than any of the others, kept looking at more   
than Akane's face.  
  
The school beauty queen said, "We all know you're a   
martial artist--"   
  
(Girls in the back said among themselves, "How could   
anyone NOT know! She has a fight with the guys EVERY   
morning!"/ "Right! And it's made them obsess over her!"/   
"It hurts their weak masculine pride they can't beat a   
girl."/ "If Akane acted like a REAL girl, she'd let the   
poor pathetic monsters win."/ "THEN they could stop   
obsessing over her, and get to US!"/ "Maybe we've been   
doing it wrong.")  
  
Ranma had been paying attention to what the chorus had   
been saying. -{This Akane fights??! That wasn't me   
beatin' up that bunch a guys this morning?}- Ranma   
brought all of her knowledge of girls to bear. It still   
had to go through the bottleneck of his heightened   
prejudice. -{Naw! She fought them dirty, like a girl, I   
bet. I fought them like a martial artist!}-  
  
The Yuumei yelled, "Akane!! If we're going to threaten   
you, you could at least have the courtesy to listen to   
it!"  
  
Both Ranma and the Akane identities said, "Sorry."  
  
Satisfied that she had the spotlight again, the beauty   
pageant-type said, "There is nothing your notorious   
fighting ability can do. We the females of Nerima have   
vowed to use every feminine trick in the arsenal if we   
have to."  
  
Ranma thought, -{I KNEW girls played dirty! This could   
give me a chance to learn their special techniques and   
figure out defenses for when I become a guy again. My   
code does kinda limit what I can do with my martial arts   
against them.}-  
  
The tall girl cracked her knuckles, "And some UNfeminine   
ones, too. For every Gang Girl, there's three Gang Guys."  
  
Ranma thought, -{Now that sounds like it might be good a   
workout.}-  
  
It was the turn to speak of the strange girl that set the   
hackles up on Ranma's and so Akane's neck, "Then there   
are...unconventional methods." She stepped forward,   
"Nyan?"  
  
Ranma's training let her use Akane's senses to zero in on   
what was bothering her about the girl that smelled odd   
and needed a lint-brush. Ranma turned to jello, "Okay!   
Okay! I'll choose!!" Ranma had found something that could   
overpower the grip the Akane-identity had her body in.  
  
= = =  
  
In the basement of his clinic, Dr. Tofu was operating.   
Using an antique instrument that dated back to dawn of   
history, he sawed through his Diagnostic. It was meant to   
amputate legs. Now it was being used to dissect a   
precious treasure from Juusenkyo. The red lump of clay   
with the green stripes and gold flecks was sensitive to   
the fluctuations of the chi/personality energies of the   
area, distinct from the ki/animate energies. Unless it   
was quickly dried out, those forces would shift the   
readings a skilled augur like the doctor could elicit   
from it. Cutting it, of course, traumatized the clay,   
too. Tofu Ono worked as swiftly but as carefully as he   
could.  
  
He paused only to remove the antique bronze acupuncture   
needles that would have gotten damaged.  
  
When he was through, a third of the clay was laid gently   
on its rough side. Inside the green lines in the red clay   
seemed to form a longer text written in shousho, a very   
cursive way of writing ideographs. And this style was so   
unique few people could read it.  
  
Dr. Tofu himself had to struggle to interpret it: "The   
Great Curse is once more...delayed..." Dr. Tofu paused. "   
"The Great Curse"? For some reason, that should be mean   
something to me..." But he didn't have the time to ponder   
it. The writing was blurring and running even now. "From   
Judgment upon the world...to judgment upon heroes (or is it   
"hero"? It could mean "heroine".) ...From Great Curse to a   
curse upon the great. May a new course for the River be   
found..."   
  
Tofu stared away at a darkness he was too well familiar   
with, "Akane! ...And this boy that possesses her body now!   
The demons seek to punish them!"  
  
Then he had a worse realization: "If the balance is not   
maintained in the Tendou property, a judgment will be   
released on Japan! It may not be the world, but it will   
do!"  
  
= = =  
  
Ranma was finally allowed to put on clothes. It was   
almost a relief to get into dry panties, bra and dress. -  
{And, hey, it's not ME puttin' the stuff on: It's this   
Akane-chick's identity! If I had any say in it at least   
I'D get one a the school's guy uniforms.}-   
  
The delegation was gone, but Ranma was not allowed to be   
alone:  
  
Sayuri asked like the schoolgirl she was, "Well, Akane?   
WHO is it going to be?! You know you can have ANY boy   
that's attacked you!"  
  
Tsugako said, "Not just one of those jerks. What guy   
wouldn't like the idea that THEY had beat out all the   
other guys and won the unattainable girl? That would make   
THEM the best man."  
  
Sayuri said, "You mean the BETTER man. The best man isn't   
the one engaged to the girl."  
  
Ranma's mood wasn't helped by the bad fit of the spare   
girl clothes. The bra pinched and pressed her boobs, the   
blouse was binding across the shoulders, and the panties   
wanted to ride up.  
  
Tsugako's eyes lit up at an idea, "Oh: Hey! We can have a   
lottery!"  
  
Sayuri protested, "You CAN'T raffle off a girl! That's   
next to prostitution!"  
  
Tsugako said, "Only if she does anything BEFORE the   
marriage." She looked at Akane.  
  
Sayuri looked at Akane. She agreed, "Nothing would   
happen."  
  
Hearing the idea of being sold off to another guy while   
in a dress did nothing to boost Ranma's already disgusted   
male ego. "The deal is *I am the one to choose!"  
  
Tsugako said, "--Wait! At least consult Nabiki? She IS   
your sister."  
  
Sayuri said, "You just want to give Akane's sister enough   
time to organize the lottery, or whatever money-making   
scheme she can come up with."  
  
Ranma had picked up the shoes with the socks inside and   
got away from the pair:  
  
SLAM!! Ranma closed the door to the infirmary so hard   
anything loose fell. By luck(?) an acoustic tile fell   
from the ceiling and hit Tsugako on the head.  
  
Just being missed getting hit herself, Sayuri did the   
Takahashi hand gestures, end fingers up, middle fingers   
down.  
  
= = =   
  
Dr. Tofu finished carefully cutting open the middle of   
the Diagnostic. He read slower, as the cursive scrawl was   
already becoming illegible: "Places changed 


End file.
